Spring is finally here. Life is good! Birds are singing, flowers are blooming, sun is shining and living is easy. I love walking through the woods, enjoying the smell of Mother Nature waking up after the long, dark winter. 

Finding my way

The process of finding my way as an artist has been a long and winding road. Finding and creating my path, my visual language is sometimes quite bumpy. They say artists put a lot of themselves in everything they make, but I have also experienced that I sometimes lose track of myself when painting.

Over the years I have acquired many tools to refine my visual language and there’s still a lot to explore!

One project at the time 

This year I decided to focus on one project at a time. Lately I’ve been working on ideas that have been with me for some time. It all started during lockdown when I had to move my studio back home and students didn’t have access to the art school. So I started to look around the house for interesting items, hoping to make paintings where one could recognize a deeper meaning, not only the shape, colour and use of the actual item.

To be honest, working on this project is a bit of a challenge. I enter the studio with enthusiasm and as the painting session goes on I lose most of my energy. I do not yet know if it’s the colour scheme or the nakedness of the objects that disturbs my energy. 

The question is, should I stay or should I go?

Art Struggles

Art struggles are, of course, a minor problem in the world. But art can pinpoint more important matters and sometimes you have to stick with it for a while in order to figure it out. And sometimes new beginnings are disguised as painful endings. When one door closes, another opens. 

Courage and flow are key words in my working process. Playfulness and having fun while painting is crucial. Normally there is some kind of dialogue between me and the painting, but in this project I struggle to grasp the hidden message…

A famous artist once said that

“If I paint from my heart anything goes, but if I paint from my head nothing works.” 

Reflection time 

And maybe it’s as simple as that, so I might just skip the whole project… even if there is something tickling me… 

Since I’ve decided my studio is my happy place where I nurture and celebrate some of the good things of this earth, I think I need to do some serious reflection work to figure out my next step.

I love to simplify and abstract, and prefer a quirky, loose and free type of expression. Honestly I think most of this is missing in this project, so no wonder I struggle and lose energy. Sometimes life in the studio sucks!

Finding the balance

Finding the balance between output and input is crucial for most of us. Besides painting and talking to my cat, I like spending time with family and friends, enjoying nice meals and checking out art exhibitions.

Hang in there! I’ve gotta prepare for a trip to Malmø, Sweden. Hopefully that will give me a much needed break and some new perspectives.

See yah!