I have to set some new goals soon! I will try do do at least one more group exhibition in autumn, and then for next year, or the year after, I'd love to have my own exhibition. Maybe it sounds like a very long time frame, but it takes so much tiiiiime to make good quality paintings the way I'm working. Also, I'd love to have a theme of the exhibition, not just throw anything in.
I reached one of my goals from new years; to participate in three group exhibitions this year. Maybe I set the goal to low?
I have to set some new goals soon! I will try do do at least one more group exhibition in autumn, and then for next year, or the year after, I'd love to have my own exhibition. Maybe it sounds like a very long time frame, but it takes so much tiiiiime to make good quality paintings the way I'm working. Also, I'd love to have a theme of the exhibition, not just throw anything in.
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Here it comes (finally), the last pictures from the vernissage. You still have time to see his exhibition, Wednesday-Sunday 1pm-5pm, until the 27th of July in Ribbingsfors. Self portrait. I admire those who dare to make them... There wasn't enough electricity in the barn and the light went on and off. In a sense it was kind of charming and since we were lucky with the weather, there was enough sunlight to watch the paintings anyways. I wouldn't recommend going there a cloudy or rainy day though. They also intended to show a video, but there wasn't enough power to do that. Bengt's inauguration speech. It was kind of bittersweet since he talked a lot about the statue which initially was supposed to be bought by the municipality of Kristinehamn. Bengt was the one who made sure the Picasso sculpture was installed in Kristinehamn. Then there was Carl Nessjar, friend with Picasso, who actually made the statue based on Picasso's design. Those three were supposed to get one monument each in the city. Picasso and Nessjar already have theirs. Bengt doesn't. Bengt said he had tried to communicate with the municipality about five times but they never called back. Then after they'd decided not to buy the sculpture, they called and wanted him to participate next year at the 50 year anniversary of the Picasso sculpture. He told them to go to hell. I remember the local news paper writing about it and from my point of view it seemed like no one was in charge from the local authorities, then they argued about the price, then Bengt made a copy of the statue and the authorities had some kind of event around it to decide weather they should buy it or not. In the end they decided not to buy it. Why go through so much trouble? First of all, why do people think that art and culture should be free? Second, if you think it is too expensive, negotiate about the price first. If you don't want to pay the price that's fine, but why let the artist make a real copy of the sculpture (which he paid for himself for thousands of SEK) so they can organize an event around it if you're not even interested in buying it from the beginning? I know all stories have different versions and since I haven't talked to anyone from the municipality I cannot be objective about it. This is just based on Bengt's speech and what I've heard and read in the media. Below: One of his first paintings at the upper left corner. To the right, one of his Nils Holgersson illustrations. To the lower left and right, abstract painting with thick layers of oil and lovely color combinations. We ended the day with this lovely sallad at Sjötorp while the boats were passing by. A great excursion!
The printer I ordered arrived to the supermarket today, and I went there to pick it up. I was almost back at my house when I saw the smart cardboard handle - before then I had been in such a hurry to get it home I'd been caring it under my arm, not to comfy (glad I have long monkey arms though, very useful at times -always see the positive side of things hehe). I'm going to give it a try and see if I can put it together. I've really missed a printer/scanner. This is a very ordinary one, but Canon use to make quality products at all price segments.
Regarding printers, a piece of advice if you don't use it too often is to have as a routine to print a couple of test pages in color each week to prevent the ink from drying. Some artists think that you interfere with the viewers' art experience when you name a painting, or when you explain it to them. I respect their point of view and I do think it is true but not automatically a bad thing. I've chosen to do the opposite and now I am going to explain why.
You only get a veeeeery short time to catch a viewer's interest. When I see people watching my paintings the normal viewer doesn't stay for too long. Not even if it is a very conceptual work which requires a little bit more time to analyze and reflect upon. People tire easily and if you want them to appreciate your art work you might have to give them a little more. When you give a painting a title, the viewer can watch the painting first and make their own interpretation, and then they can look at the title afterwards. The title can be like a little clue to what the artist's original message was about. My own experience is that when watching art, sometimes I get an "aha"-moment when I see the title or when I read a little about the artist. I don't feel like I've been stolen of my art experience; knowing a little more about the work and the creator adds more dimensions to the art piece in my opinion. I am going to give you a couple of examples of this: *Watching a landscape painting, I can appreciate the nature, the brush strokes, the colors etc, but sooner or later I want to know where to find this place! This little piece of information enhances the experience of landscape painting for me. *Watching a toilet at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Stockholm isn't at all as interesting as if you know that it is a replica of an art form by Duchamp called "ready-mades". All of a sudden you might think that the toilet idea was a genius move which helped to push the boundaries of what people considered art (or not) in the beginning of the last century. With all this being said, I don't want the viewer to feel stupid if their interpretation doesn't correspond to my original idea. It is just lovely if the painting can trigger more than one association and if the viewer can find their own special meaning by looking at it. But for those who want to know more about the story behind it, I want to be able to offer that too! They've uploaded some photos from Bright Future Festival on their Facebook page, and that's where I found the picture below. When the picture was taken we were hanging the paintings and it wasn't that easy. The strings moved with the wind and my paintings were all over the place, making somersaults! You'll find their Facebook page here.
I ordered postcards from a new supplier. These ones are shiny and a little bit bigger than the other ones. The print turned out really great, but since the paper isnt as exclusive as the other postcards, the price of these will be cheaper!
1 for 30 SEK or 2 for 50 SEK, shipping within Sweden included! :) Email: info@elinerikson.com to place your order. You'll get a sense of the size of them if you look at the picture below: Since I haven't been living in this country for some time, I've missed a lot of cultural things going on (or almost everything) from radio and TV shows to exhibitions, museums etc. Last week I listened to Karin Broos summer talk from 2011 and she is very openhearted with the tragedies in her life, from eating disorders to a lost child. She also talks about the joys in her life like art projects at Alma Lövs Museum, her children and her break-through 2008. Most interesting is to listen to how her daily life looks like; living on the countryside taking a walk and a swim in the morning, painting all by herself in her studio and riding her horses almost every day. She also talks about how she photographs her daughters which she later paints on canvas. She paints several layers on top of each other, just like me. If you want to listen to the whole program, you'll find it here (in Swedish). It is perfect to listen to while you paint, take a walk or work on your suntan :) Photo credit: SR Foto Photo of a new painting shown right now at Strandverket, click here.
Who doesn't want a spectacular studio with the right lighting, lots of space in an inspiring environment? After watching Factory Girl getting a glimpse of Andy Warhol's "the Factory", I couldnt stop to wonder how other masters' studios looked like. Francis Bacon, creative chaos: Jackson Pollock, look at all his buckets of color! Chaos and order: Mark Rothko, no extravaganza. I imagine him sitting here calculating the sizes of the squares to get the exact right measures in relation to each other. Pablo Picasso's own Versaille: All pics (and more) from here.
I painted this for the Bright Future Festival. The theme was human rights and racism. It is based on four women I know/admire from different countries and I've put together some of their best features. I love to hear others' interpretations of the images I make. Since no one will experience art in the exact same way as someone else, listening to these interpretations is very fascinating. Sometimes they have a similar view and get the same associations as I do, sometimes they are completely different and add a whole new dimension to the image. One comment was that this image shows the four seasons. Starting with spring at the lower left corner, continuing with summer at the upper left corner (she looks tanned!), then comes autumn and last but not least a black and white winter portrait at the lower right. I got a lot of flowers for my birthday, but unfortunately they've started to die. Remember when you uses to hang roses upside down and let them dry? Leftovers I kind of like this little piece of artwork. I've places it over a door like a mistletoe. |
Elin EriksonContact me on:
elin.erikson@gmail.com Archives
June 2017
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