tempera on paper

Homecoming

art, painting

A painting long forgotten. Until, one day, it caught somebody’s attention; a customer, as it turned out.

A painting long forgotten, then remembered. Re-membered, integrated: additional lapis lazuli pigment to deepen the colour blue – “light coming into being“. More of the all absorbing, finely ground charcoal for the black circle. The floating tadpole figure outlined anew in charcoal, and graced with gold leaf within. Overall proportions trimmed before mounting between acrylic glass sheets, cut to shape. Then carefully packed for transport…

…and delivered to a private home, situated on an island in the archipelago of Stockholm. Here, a number of smaller artworks were reshuffled along the walls to make space for this one. Good neighbours they will be, for sure… Two windows are providing daylight – one facing east, the other south. Outside, the sky is clear and trees are leafing. Indoors, sunlit rooms still echo from a grand piano long time gone. And so, the painting finally has found its place.

Thank you, B and A, for your hospitality!

This I Know (monterad)

This I Know (final version); tempera, charcoal and gold leaf on paper, 200 x 120 cms

reconnecting, attuning, integrating

art, recent work

During the Exhibition and Life (reconsidered), a forgotten painting from thirty years ago was brought into the light… Someone found it touching, somehow – because of the lapis lazuli blue? the mere size and shape of the paper? the little “tadpole” figure? the black charcoal circle? I can’t tell. But there it was, for the first time publicly on display.

220512 10c

from day 3 of ‘the Exhibition and Life (reconsidered)’

I was touched, too – reconnecting with the almost forgotten place in my life where this image emerged. A feeling resonating from there to now, setting me in tune again. Urging me to respond from another me. To review the elements – their size, brightness, depth, materiality, tactility; to rethink the proportions and composition; to find a new provider of lapis lazuli pigment; to find a way of mounting the large paper for permanent display.

The lapis lazuli pigment corresponds in an exceptional way with the changing qualities of light; from the midday or afternoon sky, or from electric lighting. An Orthodox rabbi’s wife passes me a quote from an artist whose name she doesn’t remember: “blue is light coming into being”.

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We’re still in the undetermined process of integration. Proceeding with care.