For the past 6-7 years, I have worked with a theme which could gen- erally be titled ‘Modern Man’s Relationship to Nature’. The project has aimed to make paintings floating somewhere between our cul- tivated, controlled and high-technology life and raw nature. In this way, the paintings reflect the complexity of a modern life in which we have become deeply dependent on technology, but where yet more and more people seek nature and where we build therapeutic gardens and green oases in the city.
I paint a sort of split up alla prima meaning that there is just one lay- er of paint on the canvas which forces me to work meticulously on the whole surface. When I am finished with the area I have time for in one work process, I run a dry brush through the still wet paint. It does not give a smoothing or blurring effect that we know from e.g. Gerhard Richter, but more an exaggeration or enlargement of the brush stroke. I seek what you could call the strength of the stroke. It is to be understood as the sealed energy of the individual brush stroke that we know from e.g. the impressionists, the expressionists and perhaps in particular Japanese calligraphy. In my ‘translation’, it can be seen in the carefully arranged motifs built up by a num- ber of strokes which are being manipulated by a large brush stroke before the paint dries. This brush stroke makes the motif both melt together and appear as a motion caught in time. An essential point is that I thus leave part of the expression to chance. Even though I have worked with this technique for about 15 years, surprises still arise from this intervention. The surface on the canvas, the viscosity, thickness, opacity and strength of the paint and the pressure from the brush are all elements which influence the final result.
