Do you pay attention to the art at hotels? I always check it out and I didn't have a single painting in my room. In the lobby they had one big yellow painting with a pattern I liked, but it was unsigned.

I'm back home again and on Tuesday I have a new date with my brushes and colors. Can't wait!

There are a lot of exhibitions I'd love to see this weekend. The couture designer Lars Wallin has his finissage (closing) in Kristinehamn and Damien Hirst will show some work at McCabe Fine Art in Stockholm. 

Butterflies, opposite colors, symmetry, religious references...how poetic isn't this! Also, the blue wings look very much alike one of my favorite butterflies, the blue morpho. 

The exhibition will last until the 22nd of October.

This is the press release from June: 

"McCabe Fine Art is proud to present the British artist Damien Hirst’s (b. 1965) first solo exhibition in Sweden. In the twenty-six years since he emerged as a leading member of the Young British Artists (YBA) movement, Hirst has risen to international fame with iconic works that explore the relationships between art, science, religion, death and beauty. In 2008, the artist created a series of 150 ‘Psalm’ paintings, each titled after an Old Testament prayer and made up of vibrantly colored, exquisite arrangements of butterfly wings. The visually stunning paintings evoke a universal sense of spirituality, as well as the natural metamorphosis of the butterfly. Alluding to Christian iconography and stained glass windows, they also seem to possess the meditative abstract qualities of Hindu and Buddhist mandalas. The works on display at McCabe Fine Art will be the most significant selection of ‘Psalms’ ever to have been shown together."

Press release and picture from here.  

When you paint realistically you don't want the painting to look too flat. One way to create deapth is to add shadows. Do you see the shadow under the hand/wrist in the second picture? Then compare it to the picture above.

You have to make sure that the painting is dry before you apply the shadow. To make the shadow transparent you can mix the oil color with a fair amount of medium. Then you will be able to see some of the background through the shadow.

This is just WIP (work in progress), I'll give you a full step-by-step tutorial when it is done.

This is what I was up to one year ago. For more pics, see my Instagram, it is open :) elin_erikson_art

1. Taking new photos for the renewal of my Swedish driver's license. 
2. Visiting the Lars Lerin museum in Karlstad.
3. Reading "4-hour work week". Great book!
4. Oil on panel

1. Addicted to red bull...
2. Oil on canvas - Deseo
3. Designed my own Iphone case with motivating quotes.
4. Visited Värmland's museum of art. Dolls in focus (Lena Cronqvist amonst others)
5. Shooting
6. Horse back riding. Great autumn weather!

This is where you'll find me!

I got told it is National Doy Day today, this one is for you Maggie :)

Been painting in the afternoon and I'm staying at the country side with this cutie tonight <3

I found another similar pattern and color at Värmland's museum of art. This floor is stunning!

This is a frequently asked question amongst those who start to paint. Should I go for the cheaper cotton or the more exclusive linen canvas?

I paint on both cotton and linen and my personal preference at the moment is actually the cotton canvas. Why?  A canvas made of cotton has a finer structure while linen normally has a rougher and sometimes a more uneven surface (think about a pair of cotton versus linen trousers and I think you'll get my point). If you paint very thin layers and small details as I do you will still see the structure of the canvas under the color. I think the end-result is nicer when the structure of the canvas doesn't steal too much attention from the motive. 

If you want to overcome the problem with a rough structure, you can prime your canvas with gesso (a thick white paste). At the moment, the method I use is to paint an under-layer with acrylic color before I start with the oil, but this layer is so thin that it doesn't cover the structure (hence I opt for the cotton canvas). Important to mention is that all the canvases, (cotton as well as linen) you buy in hobby stores such as Panduro, Clas Ohlson etc. are already primed and theoretically you can start painting with oil directly on them if you prefer to do that. 

To sum up, you don't always need to go for the more exclusive and expensive material. Think about the result you want to achieve and then choose your canvas!

Of course there are more parameters to take into account than the structure when choosing a canvas. To read more about the different materials, their pros and cons, I recommend this link. 

Since I had the leadership course in Karlstad today I took the chance to see my grandmother and to visit some exhibitions at Värmland's museum of art. 

At the entrance we met Stenen who manage the art gallery and art shop Konstgruvan, and he informed us about their next exhibition. I got a poster with me to help spreading the word :) Vernissage this weekend, don't miss it (I'll be in Eskilstuna, you have to see it for me!).

One of the temporary exhibitions at Värmlands Museum of Art showcases the living condition of male prostitutes and transvestites in Tenderloin, San Francisco.  The photographer Hannah Modigh writes that none of the people in the photos have a permanent address. All of them take drugs and most of them sell sex and have HIV. They've come to San Francisco because the city is known to be more open and welcoming than other cities in the US and homosexuals go there in the hope of a creating a better life.

This exhibition shows a reality we normally never see. It is very strong and naked and the most impressing thing is that the photographer has gotten the chance to come these people so close. 

Moa Karlberg also had a great exhibition. Not so much for the photos as for the texts. She has photographed apartments and houses in Sweden where innocent girls have been kept hostage and forced to prostitution. You might not think that these kinds of things happen in my country or my town but they do. 


Here comes two of the horror stories:
An underage girl is forced to take on 17 customers a day during trips between Romania and the south of Sweden. Her pimp controls her every move, he hits her and he also makes her pregnant three times. 

A 17 year old girl is kidnapped from Kosovo and is forced to have sex with different men in Sweden. Her pimp is believed to have smuggled over 2000 people over the years; both sex slaves and illegal refugees.

For the sports nerd, the museum also hosts an exhibition with soccer shirts. I think it is great that the museum wants to appeal to all sorts of visitors and in one sense soccer can be seen as culture, but I honestly just passed by this one very quickly, I prefer real art (or a real game) :) 

Long day today, I came home about one hour ago and tomorrow I'll start early again. In the morning I'm going to pass by the place where I am going to teach Spanish, then I have a ton of other things to do too. I'll give you a better update tomorrow. Until then, sleep tight :)

What do you think of Asian design details such as these Buddha inspired statues: