Getting My Blogging Act Together

So long since last writing. I don't want anyone to think that I haven't been painting/exhibiting/working on ways to renew my work. All of the above have been on my plate these past 10 months. Also, I took on a Creative Visionary Program which was 3 months of intensive art inspiration and technique to give me tools to see where my own art was hitting the wall, and how to move beyond it. These principles have been invaluable to analysing my paintings from every angle and proposing possibilities that I never expected/intended to use. 

Last November I had a small in-house exhibit with a fellow artist and it was as though people were so happy to have an event right in the neighbourhood, it was well visited. Thousands of people live in this area and hundreds of them walk past our building every day, and on the weekends, as well. Corona protocols were in place for visitors (masks/contact tracing/hand sanitiser) and art was sold and new acquaintances made. Planning to do this again in the next month, before the darkness of winter sets in again. 

I also moved from the studio that I have have rented for 25 years, to a larger studio in the same building, with much better light (north and northeast), more room, and a large storage closet. I can breath again! Funny how when we are ready for a change, the possibilities pop up. Very lucky. That move had me clearing out and cleaning up. Artists tend to save materials and objects and photos and .......  all kinds of things that can be used for reference at some later date.  It was good to go through these things and toss out/recycle/revisit those objects and start over with a clearer/cleaner studio. 

Working has never been a problem for me-I live very close to my studio and it's super convenient to walk there most days for painting sessions. Aside from the 32 small wooden panels I produced for the CVProgram, I have re-worked older paintings, and started 6-7 new works. I can now better assess what wasn't working with those and make corrections. It is a process that doesn't have me holding on to canvases just because I have "something" that works, but also something that doesn't work. I used to just put the painting "aside" for a while and hope some insight would hit me at a later date. Now I put it out, get rid of what's not working right away, and take the thing in a new direction, using elements of what was working and building on that. I have many new tools that I find invaluable for creating texture and bringing up the sheen in an otherwise dull acrylic finish. There are so many types of products to blend with acrylic paint that I was not aware of, but now understand their usage. Progress!

I have had a long summer vacation (6 weeks) which has hindered me in continuing on the roll I was on after completing the CVProgram, so the past 2 weeks I have been finding my footing again and getting my mind back into a painting modus. Do not recommend this long a break unless you have equipment with you, and the privacy to use them. 

I am attaching some of my work from the past 6 months-proof that I have not been slouching and that I continue to develop and evolve. Thanks for reading, and leave a comment if you wish.

80 x 100 cm.  acrylic and mixed medium on canvas

40 x 50 cm. acrylic & mixed media on canvas

                                                40 x 50 cm. acrylic & mixed media on canvas

                                                            80 x 80 cm. acrylic on canvas

                                                            40 x 30 cm. acrylic and mixed media on canvas

                                            40 x 50 cm. acrylic & mixed media on canvas

 Still Living/Breathing and Painting

What a totally strange half a year the world has had. I have been stressed out, stressed down, isolated, un-isolated, creative/lethargic, using darks to dig a hole, and lights to climb out of the hole. The virus had to be slowed/stopped by a heightened awareness all around ourselves of actions we took for granted. For the first few weeks I (we) kept to ourselves, in the house except for a daily walk and the very occasional trip to the food store. Slowly I decided that going to my studio, only 200 yds. away, would not be putting myself or anyone else at risk, so I started up again-and it totally saved me. Being able to sling paint around and forget the outside world for a few hours every day was total bliss.  

Some painters have addressed the pandemic in their painting. Some have addressed the politics surrounding implementation of restrictions. I haven't done either. Just kind of picked up where I left off, with a renewed need to brighten up my palette, but often finding my canvases very dark and depressing. I am so glad that I live in a country that has managed this pandemic sensibly, so that we can, for the most part, get on with our lives. Galleries and museums are open, many pillars of everyday life are back to normal. We still are using masks and keeping our distance on public transportation and in public spaces. We care about each other. Maybe that is what I am painting these days.....(exception being day after a certain TV debate, where so much aggression had to come out....). I highly recommend a creative outlet for that energy surging around inside of us these days, be it writing, dansing, cooking, quilting, painting-combined with physical activity and fresh air. 

This virus will not go away without a fight, so do all the recommended actions and get yourself your flu shot and pneumonia vaccine while waiting for the Covid vaccine to be available, and then try to live your life as much as you can. 

GOOD morning from the west coast of Norway.
I just re-read my previous post, and it couldn't be more ironic compared to the reality we are dealing with now. What a difference a month makes. I'm not going to give a report about how Norway has handled this pandemic, just suffice it to say that we must be doing something right (social distancing!!).
About the art, a funny thing happened with it in the last month. At first, I wasn't sure if I could even go to my studio or out of the house for non-essential reasons. I decided to do a series of drawings of things I have around me, since drawing is something I enjoy, but isn't generally a part of my painting practice.  So, I started out with some dried roses that are still on various tables around the house. I generally buy new flowers about every 2 weeks to cheer me up and add some beauty to the house/kitchen, so when this pandemic began and I was buying essentials to stock up with, flowers were NOT on my essentials list. Consequentially, the flowers I had I let dry out completely. The small drawings were fun and each one was different, so I felt in touch with creativity still. I made 4 watercolours and one black and white charcoal.  (gifting these to friends and family).  But I needed more-larger scale, bolder colors, bolder strokes. I started to go over to my studio-with disposable gloves, hand sanitiser and lots of wipes. Although we are 16-17 artists in the building, we don't see each other or work together and only meet if we feel the need to discuss "issues".  I tried to continue on some work that was started B.C. (before Corona!), but the optimism and drive were gone. Some days I just went there and slept, read and went home again. The weather didn't help-wet, foggy, repressive. I ended up painting over many works that were lighter, brighter and "springy". I took out lots of photos of wooded trails with dark greens and browns. Most of these had light somewhere in them, either with the sun flooding through trees on the mountain tops, or small specs of light on new plant growth covering the ground.  My whole palette turned dark, but not a repressive dark, just dark greens with a very little gold/yellow somewhere....hope, in a way.  I completed a large (120 x 100 cm.) (3 x 4 ft.) canvas, and moved on to 3 other ones, smaller and in different formats. I'm thinking that even though we are in a dark place right now worldwide as far as this disease is concerned, the sun is still shining, the plants have tiny leaves and tiny flowers, and the birds are still singing. My daily walks and my studio are two things that I can do to take my head to another place and distance myself from some of the horrible realities "out there". Take care, everyone, and don't do stupid things that will just prolong the agony of this situation. Air Hugs!!

Acrylic on canvas  60 x 50 cm. 

Acrylic on canvas,  100 x 70 cm. 

Acrylic on canvas  60 x 50 cm. 

Acrylic on canvas  80 x 100 cm. 

Acrylic on canvas  120 x 100 cm.

Good morning from the west coast of Norway in March. We have had a very wet and grey start of the year 2020, full of storms, snow, avalanches.  The necessity of removing yourself from the reality of what is outside your window is  what keeps us sane. People have their jobs (hopefully indoors), books to escape into, music, art, sports, etc. We turn inside. Hopefully, soon we will turn outside again. We have had short bursts of good weather and sunshine, but, let me repeat, SHORT.  Just enough to remind us that the sun IS behind those grey clouds, and the days are getting longer. Hallelujah!!!!
I have escaped to Geilo (in the mountains between Bergen and Oslo) where the snow is 3-4 ft. high and still accumulating, and everything outside is white. Now, that might seem like a good thing and it is when the sun comes out and the blue sky, sun and white snow lighten everything up. But white is still a colourless blanket that is cold and lifeless. You can go out and play in it, when you put on 4 layers of wool and wind stopper jackets. The wind!!! Good luck skiing downhill when the wind is blowing 60 m.p.h. Breathing is hard, seeing is hard (goggles take care of that, though). I can take it for about 2 weeks, then I have to come back to Bergen, to my own home, to my studio and friends and family. The studio, especially. I walk around here in our small city and find hundreds of flowers and bushes ready to pop with buds and the azaleas spreading their message.... pink and delicate.
So, when I get to the painting table and squeeze out/scoop out gobs of buttery paint, I have spring in my head. It's time to be done with black, leafless mountains, cold, grey skies, completely white landscapes.....it's time for a change!

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.