Tag: denmark

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Oil pastel, gauche etc.

For many years I was so faithful to watercolour, it was my true and only. In the last couple of years, though, I tried more materials than in a whole decade before that. I started with acrylic paint and oil, then there were printing experiments, and now I went on to pencils, crayons, pastels and even gauche. Yes, gauche, that I painted with last time when I was maybe 6 years old šŸ˜€  

What can I say? New materials a very liberating. Itā€™s like moving to a new place where no one knows you and starting all over again. And itā€™s easy to make mistakes, youā€™ve never done that before, itā€™s okay to mess up.

Plus, stuff like oil pastels are good for quick sketches, so if I donā€™t have many hours, and lately I cannot find time for a proper painting session, sketching with some dry materials is quick and not too dirty.

These small (a4) random sketches Iā€™ve accumulated since Christmas. I wonā€™t call them ā€œfinished worksā€, but I like some elements and maybe will use some parts in digital projects or print as posters, havenā€™t decided yet. But l like this abundance and variety, Iā€™ve been missing it since corona startedĀ šŸ™‚

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Putting together a small exhibition

I have a small exhibition in Aalborg University library right now. Despite corona social weirdness and limitations, it feels great to see my pictures hanging on the walls in this nice space. I really wanted to show my works in 2020 and itā€™s happening! It will last till the end of January.

It happened quite unexpectedly, even though I was talking to the art union representatives for several months. Their sudden call was a nice last moment 2020 surprise.

Now to a few technicalities of putting together a small exhibition šŸ™‚

It is the second time I have my pictures presented, but this time it was much more difficult to put it together ā€“ mostly due to the grown volume and difference in materials. Today I paint not only in watercolor, there are many pictures in acrylics and oil. I wanted them to play nicely together, and I think it worked in the end, even though the pieces are rather different in mood and contrast. I took some pictures of the ready exhibition and of my ā€œcastingā€ at home. 

A separate challenge was to hang frames on the walls nicely. Iā€™ve never tried hanging a bare canvas frame before. It turned out to be quite difficult for a newbie like me J  I spent like 3+ hours putting them up. I needed to figure the order first, and even though I had a vague plan of my grouping, I had to change it a lot on the way. Make them hang on the same level was also ā€œfunā€. With my lack of experience in the field, it was quite an exercise, but learning was exponential)). Now I think Iā€™ll have far less trouble with a similar task šŸ™‚

At the same time I felt a bit under the weather because of corona situation. Exhibiting at the moment when not even half of the potential viewers can access the pictures is not feeling exactly great. So I was a bit hesitant to share the news on social media. But then I finally pulled myself together and made a small post on personal Facebook. I think Iā€™ve never got so many positive reactions and comments on social media before, it was awesome ā€“ I am very thankful. So now, when the exhibition is almost over and almost no one can see it due to a harder lockdown, I still am writing about it. Because every step matters šŸ™‚

Have a nice day and stay safe, everyone.

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Oil

A month ago I started going to a painting studio Monday (sometimes Wednesday) evenings to learn a bit about oil and acrylic painting techniques and just book some time for painting at least once a week. What can I say?

Oh..I enjoy oil paint so so much! My background is watercolor and most of the time itā€™s just a lot of stress: you have to be fast and you get only one attempt, almost no chance for fixing it later. Oil? Itā€™s the texture, beautiful soft mixing properties, no change in color after drying. Downsides? It dries very slowly. So to get the next layer, you have to wait at least a day or two. For an impatient person like me itā€™s a little hell, but, on the bright side, I get a lot of time to think about the next layer, and planning is good even in arts šŸ™‚

So, in a month I finished three paintings, sizes are 20×30 and 30×30. My personal favorite for now is the mussels :3

My goal was to get less figurative, and I told my teacher about it from the start, so today he said something like, ā€œok, I can see you can paint, so do you want to push it a bit further?ā€ Yes, I doĀ šŸ™‚Ā so on Monday Iā€™ll start my first big abstract, 60×60 or so. Looking forward toĀ šŸ™‚