Wondering - Always Wondering.

I'm 2 weeks into my latest showing of the work I have been labouring over for the past year. I lost one week in the beginning of the month due to a trip to Nice, France which I felt was a great source of inspiration for work that would come afterwards.  The time immediately after coming home was spent frantically putting this exhibit together and left me wondering if it really was the most urgent thing in this world, or if anyone would even notice or care if I stopped painting altogether.
Negative thoughts are, unfortunately, a part of my process - both the painting process and all of the other life stuff.  Not unlike everyone else on the planet.
No one would likely care if my painting quietly disappeared from civilisation.  I'm not sure of what is coming down the pipe in the next 20 years.  All I know is that what I have done in the past 20 years has given me a trove of experience and has transformed my painting from merely nice, to much more expressive. My experience with color has given me confidence. My experience with line, form and composition has given me an eye for what works for me and what doesn't. Maybe the next 20 years will have me discovering something unique - I'll never know if I give up and throw in the towel now. With the EXPERIENCE I have under my belt, you'd think confidence would be a bi-product.
I think I'm mostly disappointed with the lack of curiosity from anyone who knows that I paint and thinks that because they saw something years ago, that the same sort of work is still being produced.
There is no way that, given my freedom from having to produce "saleable art", that I would continue on a conventional path. Maybe it's not ground breaking right now, but I think that when a creative is freed from commercialism, the mind can wander into new territory. I'm on my way there.  I will try to be more positive.  I, at least, know that I am breaking new ground every year.

 ACRYLIC ON CANVAS, 100 x 70 cm.

 ACRYLIC ON CANVAS, 50 x 40 cm.

 ACRYLIC ON CANVAS, 100 x 70 cm.

ACRYLIC ON CANVAS, 80 x 100 cm.

Good that I caught myself reading an article about owning your content, be it on your website or blog or portfolio or whatever.  Suddenly I got the urge to share what has been going on in my studio the last month. Lots of hours have been spent there and it seems that I am getting teased out of my usual method of working, urged to use different colors/new colors that I have purchased, but not included in my usual repertoire and coaxed to play more (and that is really HARD!). I have mostly been an intuitive painter, but underlying all my work is nature as inspiration. Nature walks, botanical gardens, rivers, oceans, fjords......I will always see some relation to these elements in my final product. I paint what I want to see. Photographs can be beautiful, but an personal interpretation of nature through the eyes of an individual can be just as fascinating-or more.
Anyway, my freedom with my materials, and the seemingly endless hours in the studio make for lots of experimentation and changes in technique. When stuck, I found that if I just doodle on the canvas-no matter if there is a direction or hours of work already there, I will force myself to redirect that attention. Never giving up-but never taking something so seriously that it can not be changed, has almost always taken me in a new direction that has built up my artistic intuition. I dare to mess it up, because I know that I can always come back to it, but more important, because a new breakthrough might be just around the next swash of color or line.  Be Brave-a note that has been hanging on my studio wall for 20 years, never looses it's relevance.

all paintings, acrylic on canvas/linen with highest/artists quality paint. 

OK. I know that I've been delinquent in keeping this up to date because I thought that this account was over and done with. I've been having some issues with WordPress and thought our relationship was through.  Now I just randomly typed in my acct., and up popped this.
OK, I thought, I'll update and see what happens. Just hope I don't write a LOT of dialog and then it all disappears when I push "post"...
I have been very busy, both with developing new work, and all the other duties that life presents. When I'm not in a position to be at the studio (vacation, holidays in the mts., etc.) I can do it for a while, but if it stretches out to weeks.....then I'm slowly turning into some kind of beast that resents everything that's holding me back. When we're not creating, we're not only NOT moving forward, I feel that I am backsliding. When I finally make it back in the studio, it's like it takes me a while just to remember how to use the equipment again....not to mention what to paint.  One good thing is you see your work with very fresh new eyes, and that can be a catalyst to change what's not working.
OK. Here is a small sampling of some of the newer work that has manifested itself in the past few months. The is an event coming up in Bergen the 27th and 28th of April called B-Open in which over 130 artists in Bergen are opening their studios to the public for a chance to connect.  It's not a sales event, just a way for people to see what you do, see where and how you work and have a little conversation with like minded.  I'm thinking it's a great opportunity to have a little exhibit in one of the long halls we have in our building, and hopefully meet some new people and connect with friends and neighbors.  I really hope that it will be the informal stage that allows people to dare to enter our working space and see how we try to make something out of nothing.
Here are a few of my latest paintings that I am working on for my next exhibit in September at Lille Atelier, Lille Øvregt. 16-Bergen.

Acrylic on canvas, 120 x 40 cm. 

Acrylic on canvas 100 x 70 cm. 

Acrylic on canvas 100 x 80 cm. 

Acrylic on canvas  45 x 60 cm.

Acrylic on canvas  100 x 120 cm.