Painting
Oil colour - how it began
In my youth I studied commercial art for four years in the school of industrial art in Gothenburg, Sweden (now part of the University of Gothenburg). Painting was a compulsory subject, but I had absolutely no intention to become a free artist at that time. Instead of creating something of my own I made a copy of a Rembrandt painting. There were two reasons for that particular choice – it would fit a frame I had found in a container, and it would hopefully impress my girlfriends. That painting is still on one of the walls at home.
I didn´t paint more until 20 years later. At that time we had a house of our own. We had some empty walls which we wanted to decorate, and I made some big paintings on canvas for that purpose.
Some years later my wife and I spent a summer in a very stimulating environment in the south of Sweden. My interest in making something for home decoration was reawakened. Inspired by old masters I made these:
And now
The kind of contemporary art which above all (or exclusively) aims at exposing the artist himself I dislike. Instead I want to catch the spectator by the picture itself. The inspiration comes from older styles of painting and today´s world of images in all kinds of media, far from contemporary art.
Usually I begin to paint directly on the canvas or the board without sketching or any other planning. I start spontaneously to fill the surface without thinking of anything in particular, just using a broad brush. Hopefully after this I can begin to imagine a picture in the mess. Then my job is just to develop it.
My pictures are mostly fantasy landscapes, sometimes with signs of a civilization. What they are really supposed to be is up to the spectator to fancy.
Here are some examples from my production. Some are still in my possession.
