The following paintings were completed in October 2015. They are all landscape square paintings carried out en plain air from the same position, from an isolated cottage on a lake near the town of Alignsas, Sweden.
The early autumnal landscape would change minute by minute, as the gentle wind would adjust the clouds. As a result, each painting is an attempt to capture a different time of the day. Hence, the titles are all times of the day in reference to this point.
The paintings are all completed with oil, and oil pastel on canvas. Some of the work is on partially primed and lightly encrusted canvas, whilst others are on the raw back of primed canvas. The works were executed on horizontal surfaces, allowing the colors to flow freely across the creased landscape of the canvas itself. All the works were largely completed on site over the course of a week, whilst some of the pieces were reworked in the artists’ studio in Hampshire, England. Despite the short intensity of the work, many of the works are composed of several veils of oil paint, whilst others are completed with words that were automatically received and expressed, adding a literally dimension to the works.
“5 pm” was the first work completed on the trip, wherein it is written “the landscape changes every second”. These words are reflected, in reverse, on the sky, as a result of the canvas being pressed against itself. This print is then crowned with the words “come on, let’s love”, drawing on the central theme, the word “love”, that is repeated in several works.
“Love” is faintly written on the base of the works “6.30pm” and “7pm” a pair of larger pieces, which are embellished with watery yet warm tones of a light pink, merging with rusted yellows and a blues hinting at the sky and water. The horizon mediates around the center of the work, as the piece attempts to reflect not only the detailed magic, but also, the overarching simplicity of the natural setting.
Some of the works are meditations, whilst others are an attempt to capture, in painting, the fleeting moment, before the clouds and suggested landscape’s composition would reformulate. The result is a collection of paintings that above all, tell the classic tale of a painter’s very human and imperfect withdrawing journey towards nature in order to express and bring home to share its balance and harmony. In an attempt to achieve perfections, with finite time and resources, the worn canvases are the artifacts, that serve an allegory to our own short-lived journey on earth. With calm, repose, richness and subtlety, as well as lyrical charm with a touch of love, the paintings are but sketches of the instants that define everyday on earth.
“2pm”
“3pm”
“5pm”
“12am”
“3:45pm”
“1:30pm”
