Organic art

Flow II

  • Flow II 69.5 x 49.5 cm
  • Flow II detail

Although this has been numbered as no two in the Flow series it has a number of predecessors. (Note to self, get a grip on documentation.) I experimented with painting gesso on 300 gram watercolour paper and continued with watercolour and coloured pencils. It has been a fight to reconcile the raised brush strokes of the gesso with the layers of watercolour but I decided yesterday that the struggle must stop here. The result is ambiguous, is it something growing, flowing or just a snapshot of light in a (colourful) glade? Or the remains of a structure?

Unless I suddenly see another possibility of portrayal I am now releasing it from my control.

Embrace

  • Embrace 46 x 29.5 cm
This monoprint is a ‘few’ years old. Went through a period when I was looking at runes and the winding, snaking lettering. I’ve been looking for the original embracing couple but can’t find the inspiration. It is probably a silver pendant, humans were not really depicted on the rune stones. Anyway, I like the organic feel of this work, trees and all.

Blue roots

Blue roots 96×72 cm

Came across this watercolour/drawing when looking through works that I have at home in Sweden. Although it is part of a large group of ‘fur’-like drawings I like it because its landscape qualities, combined with hints of human/animal bodies, sets it apart from other works. The pools of ‘water’, I think, are quite delicate and seeps into the fur which is undulating, maybe following an underlying mountain range.

Ferens Gallery exhibition

Flow

Flow has been selected to the Open Exhibition at the Ferens Art Gallery at Hull and will be shown from Saturday 15 February to Sunday 26 April 2020.

Technique similar to Dance On that was exhibited in Edinburgh but with watercolour instead of block printing colour as the starting point.

Loss

Loss (63×45 cm approx)

This monoprint took a while to get going – the stark contrast between the red and black and the middle part with little in the way of openings didn’t give me any hints of where to start. But this impenetrable surface eventually steered me towards using the central enclosed space as an area from which tentacles/veins could flow out and into. I wanted also to keep the work ‘organic’ and tactile. At the end of the process I toned down the red slightly although the colour is still a ‘bit in you face’.