The red gown

2019, Paintings

I tried to do a painting of Tilda Swinton in Suspiria (2018) from a ridiculously cool promo still. But I was stopped very efficiently in my tracks because of the roughness of my canvas. I like raw linen.. but at a certain point the knots and weave of the garment prevented me from going into the detail I wanted. I later found out I could have polished it after the glue-application.

However at the stage shown in this photo, I quite liked the thing. The flowing gown and her stance and everything.

Gazing pensively into the middle distance.

The terrified self portrait

2019, Myself, Paintings

This self portrait attempt was made using a photo and the grid transfer method. Even so I kept arriving at a terrified expression that did not exist in the photo (probably helped along by the deep fold of canvas right across the forehead). Back and forth between layering paint on and wiping it off again…

Oh the anxiety!

Finally I got pissed and trashed the whole thing. But I think my 6yo niece finds it amusing – so that’s something.

Oh vey!

Self portrait using a mirror

2019, Myself, Paintings

I attended a summer course at Holbæk Kunsthøjskole earlier this year. The teacher (all round brilliant dude, Søren Martinsen) quickly noticed how much I love using the grid method to transfer a nice static photograph to the canvas. So he asked me to try to do a portrait from life – in this case using a mirror to produce a self portrait.

I dunno how well it really turned out – it is CERTAINLY affected by my own idea of what I think I look like. Probably more so than what I could see in the mirror.

Then there’s also the factor that I sped up my work process (and my impatience) to the extreme during the course. I wanted to get as much done as possible, and kinda wore myself out. What I’m getting at is, I may have decided things were as done as they could be a little too early. Its very common to start worrying that more work will ruin a piece rather than improve it. But still..

Having said as much (more than on any other post) – I did like to work with a bunch of strong colors instead of the usual beige-y skin tones of Scandinavia.

Stare into the abyss!

The painting I got mad at

2019, Paintings

It started out as a portrait of Holly Hunter based on a screencap from ‘The Piano’. However the context and background – rain and mud splatters all over didn’t work in the painting. It just came off as odd and unexplained. So I left it in a fairly unfinished state, gave her a nice face mask and painted the background a violent shade of orange. And now I like the thing much better. So; it must be done.

Holly Hunter in a cloud of orange