An Art Work A Day

These stormy days when the New Year Celebration in China is threatened and people have to stay indoors in Jerusalem because the palms as wel as the whole city is covered in snow, I was inspired to make this painting.

I chose to make it very blended because I did not wantt o make it dramatic. Still we hope that this extreme weather will not become the norm.

This is the third of my larger paintings this year and I'll probably explore the blended effects a bit more. The second one is also a blue blended one.

Turbulence,
medium: oil on gallery wrapped cancas, painted on the sides so it is ready to hang
size. 50x60cm
$350
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This is one of mine that people probably either hate or love LOL

Been home from work today with a bad cold so this is one that I had fun making earlier this year. First day of not painting for a very long time. Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow.

Looking Sideways,
medium: oil on canvas panel
size: 18x24cm
$100
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My son was kind enough to bring a cold into my house when he visited this weekend so today it is my turn to feel stuffed in the nose and unwell and have a runny nose.

But LOL nothing can stop me painting. I have painted almost every hour I can for the last weeks and tonight was no exception.

Delightful Bloom,
medium: oil on canvas panel
size: 18x24cm
$100 P&p worldwide is FREE
SOLD

Update on bigger paintings
I have been working very hard looking into different styles and media and I am happy to tell you that I do believe I have something interesting to show you bit by bit over the next days and weeks.




Only problem with working on bigger canvases is that I definately need to find somewhere else to paint. Today I realised that my leather furnitures and cupboards and all kinds of things had got a taste of the oil paint.

I do love my blue landscapes and sice I also love the ocean and the mountains so naturally I am very pleased with this one. I plan on making mroe in a series focusing on the polar landscapes and the ice and the blue light.

I love my life as an artist but I must admit that some days are incredibly hard. The time is past 11 p.m tonight and I still have a couple of hours of preparation and rapport writing work to do before I can go to bed. Tonight that is hard. I am tired and not very motivated. I do not mind the work but giving it all to BOTH the painting and my job as a teacher, is a bit much sometimes.



Polar Seascape,
medium: oil on canvas panel,
size: 24x30cm
$175
SOLD

I thought we could use another warm colour painting before I start showing you my blue ones again. This too has a title I am a bit unsure of so any advice from viewers willl be appreciated.

I chose a more Asian style in the figure because most of meditation and similar techniques originates here.

I wish you all a calm and restful week.

Contemplation,
medium: oil on canvas panel
size: 18x24cm
$100
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SOLD to a wonderful lady who is expecting her first granchild as I write this.

My son is visiting this weekend and he is studying aeronautical science to become an airplane mechanic so this painting started its life as "Love Flights". I was not absoluetely sure about this title so any better suggestions was appreciated. Barbara came up with this fantastic poetic title "Blooms in the Hurricane" and I very much appreciated that. You can chose yourself what title suits your interpretation the best. See comments. I thought you viewers as well as I needed something softer, warmer and nicer today than the more hash abstracts I have been posting lately.


"Blooms in the Hurricane",
medium: oil on canvas panel,
size: 18x24cm
$100
FREE postage worldwide

After having posted an emotional semiabstract it felt right to post a nicer painting for those of my viewers needing that today. Yesterday I posted and commented on the mountain symbolisms. I think we sometimes need to look past the mountain top as well and not only focus on reaching any top. Maybe there is calm and warmth and a good life to be had without being part of the fight to become King or Queen of the Hill?


Looking Past the Mountain Top,
medium: oil on canvas panel
size: 24x30cm
$100

When I started working on this one, all I knew was that this figure was jumping. Originally I wanted the person to jump out of joy but as some of you probably has realized my figures tend to turn out nasty or lonely or not happy at all for some reason. Well, I guess that means that my style in figure painting is semiabstracts showing strong emotions often with subjects that many of us prefer not to think about. Whether any of them will be saleable I do not care.

For some reasons my abstracts seems to become emotional while my landscapes are usually more meditative and calming in style. For a period now I will work very intensively on my oil painting and post more than one per day. I'll try to post a mix of the abstract and the realistic so that there hopefully will be something for more visitors. What I will end up painting I do not know. Too often the painting seems to control me and not the other way around hehe.

Towards the Heart
medium: oil on canvas panel
size. 24x30cm (~9.5x12in)
$150

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Flooding From the Mountains
medium: oil on canvas panel
size. 24x30cm (~9.5x12in)
$120

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yes, you are right. It is another one of my blue sky paintings. I simply adore the sky in this painting. Finally the last 3 days the clouds and rain went away locally and we have had gorgeous blue skies even with a lovely moon on it this morning when I walked to work (son has car)

Cold Winter's Day,
medium: oil on canvas panel
size: 18x24cm
$100


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Delicate Womb
oil on canvas panel
24x30cm
not for sale, a gift to a lady whose heart is as delicate as the colours on this painting.

A few days ago I saw a special image on gather.com. The image showed a hand with a bracelet with the words "faith" on it and Lindy the poster told us that her sister in law had one with "hope" on. They had agreed not to take them off until the sister in law was done with chemo.

That story inspired this painting and of course it will be sent Lindy when it is dry.

I really experienced tonight how cultural differences can make communication difficult. I said something I meant as a huge compliment and unfortunately due to bad wording and cultural insensivity on my part I ended up hurting a lady I would not for the world hurt. I have appologized and I ask you to pray or cross fingers depending on your preference that she will forgive me because I would hate it if this escalates.

I write in English but I am Norwegian and English is my second language and I might insult without meaning it. Please if I should happen to write something that you feel is hurtful in any way then email me and I will immedeately try to fix it.


In this painting I chose to focus on the cultural and lingvistic differences between Men from Mars and Women from Venus.


The Difficult Communication,
medium: oil on canvas panel
size: 18x24cm
$120

Debbie commented beneath "yes yes yes! Post painting construction!!! Facinating.... " so here is another step by step.


Step 1
An outline of a possible composition. As I said below I did not know whether this would become a nice or a disturbing painting. Working title at this stage was "Story Telling" but I knew that for some reason my figures tend to be darker in subject matter as well as about social issues concerning the weak in our world, women and children. My being a mum as well as a teacher of course has a huge inpact on my strong feelings about such issues.

What I know is that I have a circle of children and a grown up, That is all. I know nothing at this stage as to how realistic I will end up painting this or what colour sceme I'll end up chosing. the odds are that it will be semiabstract.

Step 2-3
I have now added a layer of raw umber green shade colour to the background and started blocking in the basic shapes. I can tell already that child figure no 2 will become my favourite.
Step 4
I have started to block in some faceshapes, shoulders and legs


Step 5
A few more details on the kids and I have started on the big figure. I decided on letting it have little personal details. This is not a woman or a man, and we can not see what he or she looks like. I avoided details because I wanted to show mostly thye power this adult has and in this situation it does not matter whether the person is ogod or bad looking - he or she is scary or dangerous.

Children when drawing people that frighten them do something similar. I wanted some of that effect.

As for the children - they are not individuals but symbols of different children. We can see their difference through the small variations in body posture but in general they are feeling smll and powerless and makeing themselves smaller still.

The one in front is more relaxed though.

I also started on the floor and background.

Step 6
Adding more details and working more on the background.

Last step
After a few tweaks I signed it and that's it.

The last thing I do after having found a safe place to store it while it dries is to start cleaning up.

After that I start editing the photos. It is amazing how much time that takes. I usually take several photos and use the best. I usually need to crop and resize and rotate and more.

Then there is what I am doing now, presenting it on the blog.

The rest is getting it out there, talking to customers and people commenting it ( that I love) and maybe frame it. And if everything works out great then some day someone will purchase it and I will pack it and send it to its new home.

Powerless Children
medium: oil on canvas
size: 18x24cm
price: $ 100
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I was so happy this morning because finally I could see the sun and finally it happened when I was home so that I oculd get a few proper photos of my art.




















In the Corner,
medium: oil on canvas
size: 18x24cm
I was unsure a long time whether I wanted to sell or not but ended up selling after a year. This one I would have liked to be one of the paintings representing me if I should be interviewed again or have something written about me in a book. THAT is how satisfied I am with it.

This time I managed to rip myself away by steely will power and take photos along the way. LOL. You might notice a difference in colour on the examples. Neither is correct. the original has the crimson red of step two but the brightness of those that looks more orange. The original has NO orange tint. Problem is that I either have to use the flash and then I get that yellowish orange tint or not use flash and lose the brightness of the painting. I will try again tomorrow in natural light. Unfortunately due to rain as well as it being winter proper daylight has been hard to find.

Step 1
For this painting I did not want the white canvas as the base to paint on These kinds of artist canvas panel boards are primed with acrylics before you buy them - sometimes twice or three times. That means that me using acrylics for another layer before starting with the oils works fine.

Usually I make it all black - several layers, but sometimes I thin the black out and use it for first sketches to get an idea of the composition. here as you can see the idea is for a corner of a room with an abstract person sitting in the "shame on you"-corner like they used to have in old schools and in old ways of child rearing.

I also indicated some the corner itself and some texture to the walls and the floor. Whether that would be the end texture or shape of the figure, that is not decided at this point.

Neither is the style completely decided. I might at this stage go for a more realistic figure and focus on right porportions and similar and make it fairly realistic. Then I would be left with choices as to how detailed to paint the face and what clothes and all such things.

The next challenge was what colours to go for. If I wanted the realistic look, then the walls and the floor had to be realistic too and if I wanted to continue the texture of wall and floor wooden paneles like the ones you find in houses from around 1950 then I would have to chose wooden colours.

Step 2
In the end I decided to go for more symbolic than realistic style and focus on the emotion of shame and feeling exposed and humiliated and alone.

So what colour symbolises that? Of course red is the colour of such feelings. We get warm and we turn red in the face and on the ears.

I therefore covered the entire painting with alizarin crimson red after a thin layer of painting medium.


Step 3
I then started working on the background and began with the walls. Most people nowadays and especially not teachers do not use this method any more even though some might use other means to humiliate their students.

Anyway, this being from the "old days" I wanted to make the background like any very basic schoolhouse in the country in the old days. That is untreated or painted wooden panels. Most of my house which is from the 1950s is made by using this narrow wooden panels.

The way I wanted to create this effect was to focus on painting with a narrow brush downwards over and over and the last layer one downward stroke at a time - each stroke covering partly the previous one. That way I indicated that structure. Again if I had chosen the realistic painting style I would then have had to show the twirls and holes and all which makes such panel looking great when unpainted. But again the walls is not the focus - they are only supporting the symbolism.


Step 4
Same stage in two photos one taken with flash so that you can see the details better. Then of course you get the reflections. Wet paint is hard to take photos of, especially when there is dark parts too.

The floor was decided on in very much the same manner as the walls. Normally such panels would have been paralell to either wall but my focus is the corner so I chose to make them diagonal and kind of point towards the corner.

Step 5
Painting the figure itself. I am now firmly decided on making this painting symbolic but still at this stage I could have changed my mind and done the figure more realistic. I am very happy I made the choices I made because This is EXACTLY how I would have wanted it to turn out. Now I really got the pay for practising chinese brush painting where every brush stroke counts and can not be erased. One bad stroke and I would have had to scrape of and wipe off and start all over again. I felt great when I saw the result.

Final Step
Now I had the biggest challenge of all LOL How much "piddling in my puddle" as an artist friend calls it would I do. The time had come to fix the tiny details. The problem is that a tiny tad too much piddling and the painting is overworked and loses its freshness and is basically nearly ruined if you're unlucky. One of my weaknesses is my need to just fix a tiny bit more and a tiny bit more. Today or rather tonight :-) (03.46 here) I forced myself not to do that.

The final decition is where to put signature, how big and what colour to use. You want it to show clearly but also not to interfear with the painting etc etc. What is left now is to put it somewhere safe from 3 cats fighting and similar while it dries.

Again two versions here to allow you to see the prosess better.

So sorry, again me, the paint and the painting knife went into anothe dimention, so this one two you only get in 2 steps. This one two has a blue background. I said initially that I did not know whether I anted it to be a land or dep ocean plant. The way it ended I still have not decided. By making the leaves semiabstract they can be whatever the viewer want them to be and I like that style or hehehe rather that style takes control over me.

Again sorry about photo flash reflections.


Gently Swinging Blue Leaves,
medium: oil on canvas panel
size: 24x30cm (~10"x12")
price: $ 100
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I am so sorry. What happened was that as usual I got lost into painting and lost track of time and my plan to take photos step by step to show you. So I am sorry this only ended up being a 2 step demonstration.

I am fairly satisfied with the results because I think I managed my goal of making it calm, quiet and relaxing. The clouds are soft and light and the ocean calm without waves.

The rocky beach is deserted but with more textures so that the painting did not end up totally without any "bite".

I decided on making the sun very distant and small because I did not want this to become a typical sunset painting.

Sorry about some flash refelctions from the camera. Without the flash I get a perfect image but the blue colour is lost - sith the flash some reflections when taking the photo on wet paint ona black background. By the way, what you see as only black is also blue tinted so there is no harsh clean black here.

Sun Sinking into the Blue,
mediaum: oil on canvas panel
size: 30x40cm (~12x16in)
Price: $150
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I myself love step by steps, and I also love to hear the background of paintings. I will over a few posts during today and tomorrow try to bring you along and explain some of what is going through an artists mind while working - at least this artist.





















My working title for this one is "In the corner" Whether that will be the end title I do not know but it is often useful for me to have some direction in my work.

As you have seen before, I regularly paint figures in an semiabstract style without faces so that posture makes the persons or women, because I mostly do women, be a representative of a group or for example all women.

Sometimes the abstractation of the person is done more to show an emotion or a situation more than a person.

That is what I believe I will do with this one at this stage. I am mostly thinking about the symbols of being in the corner. It has strong historical roots and represent everything from having been blamed, feeling guilty and probably most of all the shame and humiliation. The last two feelings is my focus at this stage.

My biggest challenge right now is to decide on which colours to use to make the symbolism stand out. This is not supposed to be a painting that will be nice to look at - I want it to be uncomfortable looking at because I want any viewers to think and to feel that humiliation others is not OK. Deciding which colours for the background and which for the figure is very hard at the moment. I have no idea





I have several kinds of collectors and viewers to my blog but people can often be roughly divided into those who like abstracts and often also not so nice ones and those who prefer more realistic ones and often the more nicer ones. The last ones have for some time asked me when I would start making those nice landscapes of mine again.

This fisrt background layer allows me to mentally build an image inside my head as to what style and impression I want it to make. I want this to have lots of horisonatal lines like the horizon. I want it to be calm but with a touch of soft movements like the sound and movement on a beach of the water when the waves are nearly non existent. I want it to give the viewer what such meditations audios give with sound - a feeling of peace, calmness, meditation and oneness with nature.





















This one I am a bit udecided about still. I am not sure whether I want to be on land or deep down in the ocean. I do however want this to have plants of some kind moving gently. I want this to be happy and maybe with a touch of a style that we would like to hang in a child's room. I will use bright colours and reds and greens them being shiny and fun. I will go for a semi realistic style. This is the painting to do while bringing out my inner child and use the colours a child would use.





















This painting has several directions and I am not sure which one I will go for in the end. The painting probably will tell me as I start working on it.

Working title is "First step story telling" and that might be the story I will go for. On the other hand I could go for "basic teaching" or some part of me do not want this to be a happy painting. My initial feeling was not of something nice but of a group of children huddling on a floor with a big person over them. Whether this will end up showing a good situation or a bad one, only the painting itself knows. This will be a painting where I start working more wihout knowing where it will end at all.


I would love comments on whether you like me to post stuff like this on the blog. I love any comments.

The biggest challenge with this one has been to get a decent photo of it. I think I have taken 20 photos and cropped and tried all kinds of settings on the camera and putting it all kinds of places when shooting. It is a pity that this is the best I could do because the painting is very sweet.


Water feeding the Pond,
medium: oil on canvas panel
size: 18x24cm
SOLD to USA

Waiting and Hoping,
oil on canvas panel
size: 18x24cm
SOLD


All income from the sale of this painting will go directly to Equality Now
One thing I feel very strongly about is women's rights around the globe and as some of you have noticed that shines through some of my works. I was fortunate to be born in what UN has said is the best country to be born in. But Still most of my life has been influenced by traditional female limitations. Getting divorced and raising two children took almost all energhy for about 15 years. Loose Pelvis Syndrom did not help either.

I am lucky, most women do not have my advantages. Who you get married to matters enourmously and divorce is usually not an option. I chose to dress this waiting girlwoman in red because that is the traditional bridal colour in many Asian countries. Traditional marriages is not uncommonly arranged marriages too in many parts of the world and also in the West due to immigration. What are the feelings of these girls being put up on those pidestalls for the weeding days? What do they hope for - what are their dreams?

Please check out Equality Now which is a wonderful women's organisation which works much in the same way as Amnersty International

This is what the article in Bergens Tiende looks like. And some information gathered from their home page: "Circulation/readers
Bergens Tidende has the largest number of subscribers outside Oslo, in addition to newsstand sales. The newspaper has 253,000 readers daily. The circulation is 87,076 daily copies (2006). "

Bergens Tiende online

Click the image and you will get a large version


Big Painting update
The monster size project is put aside for a while while the person interested has a rethink after getting the necessary information.

Nevertheless, I am very happy because I will be painting big anyway, not that big but do a few in 2x3feet or 3x4feet and maybe a bit bigger than that but still within a more normal size range. I am thnakful to this person for having triggered me to begin to think in bigger terms.

And LOL made me start playing around with the theme he was interested in and the result "Anguish" posted at midnight was sold this morning hehehe. So yes very happy.

"In the womb" update
Before Christmas the story started. Barbara, a lovely lady and soon to be granmother fell for the painting "In the Womb" and bought it because to her it represented her unborn granchild.
She is an art collector and printed out several versions of the image while waiting for it. This January when she wanted to frame and put it up in her group she could not find it, she and her friend spent ages searching for it. You all know how it is during the holidays where we tidy away stuff and especially thos ethings we value the most and put aside in smart places. . . . .
She could not find it and was very upset. I was then asked to do a copy. The thing is that I can't do copies but I can make something in the same style or with the same subject matter and I promised to try.

The result was "In the womb II and III" A couple of days after that the first painting arrived. It had not been mislaid by this lady but by the postal service during the holiday frenzy. She had looked at it so many times that she had not been sure whether she had received it or not. The story ended well. Now I have 2 more painting. They might join the first one or they might end up in your home. Barbara feels that they should be given a chance to go to someone else but she would also appreciate having the series. Time will tell. It would be fun to hear what yoru favourite is. I, II or III

Update on big painting
It seems there probably will be a big painting or maybe several but maybe it will not be monster size. Time will tell. No matter what I will start doing first steps on bigger canvases this weekend.
Update on Bergens Tiende
The article about internet and art and the daily painters gallery and me was published this Monday. I will post a photo of it when I get my hands on a newspaper. I am happy with it even though I had hope that it would have had more about the dp-movement. My words came out in the journalists phrasing but that is OK - my full name and location was very clear in the article - Full name even was mentioned 3 times which is great.







23 Anguish, SOLD to CA, USA
oil on canvas panel board
size 18x24cm
$100
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I have had a fantstic day painting hour after hour tonight.

Possible commision 2mx2m
Just a few minutes ago I got a shock. Out of the blue I was asked for a price for a painting 2m x 2m. (6,56feetx6.56 feet) in the style of "behind the Mask". Well as those of you who follow my blog know, I decided that january 2008 would be the month to grab challenges LOL but I must admit I am a bit exited by the thought of going for such a challenge because of the size. Keep coming here and I will tell you whether anything comes of this challenge.

No matter what comes of this I have decided to grab one of my 80x100cm canvases and work on it this weekend at the latest, so no matter what comes of this - it has triggered interesting things.

This painting is one I like very much myself because it has such a tranguil mood about it. A pity that it is so difficult to get great photos of wet oil paint.


Meditative Shore,
oil on canvas panel board
size : 18x24cm
$150

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