golden girl

golden girl

onsdag 10 december 2014

I hope I don't offend anybody...

...with this picture.


Today it was totally wild  at Folkkulturcentrum. Four male acrobats from Cirkus Cirkör were performing. Three of them in the nude. Two  musicians were playing flute, clarinet, chello,drums and sometimes they were chanting.  This occasion called for another medium; acrylics on a large piece of brown paper.


Acrobat from Spain, without his beard


Today also was the last day of school, now I'm officially on Christmas break. Talk to you later!





fredag 21 november 2014

Discouraged...


He is staring at me with his unseeing eyes. I´ve been so discouraged thanks to this figure.
I´m working on a drawing of this head; front, side and 3/4 side view. I thought it would be easy.
I was wrong.

My teacher Farigh has studied at the Repin Academy in St. Petersburg, that is where he picked up this figure. He told us about his Russian professor who almost NEVER used an eraser, he was so skilled in drawing. I use my eraser ALL THE TIME. It´s really hard to get the proportions right (I even have a hard time spelling the word "proportions"). 




It´s not a pretty sight. Yet.




My other project is this Bargue drawing. It´s killing me as well.

I left" the Russian head" and the Bargue drawing and went to
Folkkulturcentrum. The models for the day were two opera singers who is performing in an opera for children, "Hans and Greta". 


Hans and Greta (Margareta and Pernilla) and Bosse.


The models take their seats, in the background you can see the gingerbread house.



My sketch of Margareta, pencil on paper

A good painting always starts with a good drawing so even though I sometimes feel discouraged when I struggle at the drawing board I know that, step by step, I will master the
art of drawing if I´m diligent.

“One must know how to draw before one becomes an artist. It is because the ability to draw is the basis for the art. These skills should be developed from early years so that the artist as soon as he starts thinking and feeling, could express and convey his thoughts accurately and without any hindrance, so that the pencil could run at an artist’s will and thought.”                          
Karl Pavlovich Bryullov , Russian artist 1799-1852                                                                                                     

Talking about the Russians, one of the biggest museum collections of Russian art in the United States is found in Springville, Utah. To read about how this came click on this link http://upr.org/post/utahs-famous-collection-soviet-art . I visited the Springville Museum of Art in January this year.


Yuri Stanislavovich Podlyaski (1923-1987)
Portrait of Masha Surtukova Reading (Yellow socks)
Oil on canvas, 79x52 cm





Akmed Abadullovich Kitaev (1925-1996)
Miru Mir (Peace to the world) May Day, Red Square, 1964
Oil on canvas, 96 x 194 cm












Nikolai Ivanovich Ulyanov (1922-1990)
Invasion: Enemy at the Door, 1965
Oil on canvas, 200 x 100 cm


During the 1960s it was a fashion in Soviet painting to attempt to create suspense for "the next moment". In this painting we see a German soldier during World War II, who has come to the house to plunder whatever he can from the house. Or will he just shoot the sickly grandmother and the toddler? Or give them some chocolate?


Evtikhi Aleksandrovich Konev (1914-2008)
Sunday Picnic, 1962
Oil on board
I love the way the artist with very few strokes with the brush has described the shape of the woman in the white dress and the yellow wrap she tied around her head. Simple but totally convincing.



Yuri Petrovich Kugach (1917-2013)
Wedding Dinner Study, Girl in Polka-dot Dress, 1959
oil on board


Fedor Vasilevich Shapev (1927-    )
Country Doctor, 1967
Oil on canvas, 105 x 140 cm

This piece depicts a physician making rounds to the villages in her region. During Soviet times most doctors were women, because medicine was not the prestigious profession it was in Sweden or the United States. The artist says it is his quest to make the figures speak to the viewer and reveal their best attributes.




Arkadi Akeksandrovich Plastov (1893-1972)
Village Girl in the Snow, 1950
Oil on canvas, 60 x 46 cm


Tatyana Nilovna Yablonskaya (1917-2000)
In the Artist´s Studio, 1954
Oil on canvas, 70 x 90 cm



Eriska Thereski Arneskaya (1961-    )
Figure Study with no 
Trace of the Russian Method or Knowledge of the Traditional way of Painting
Oil on Canvas, 2011

One thing I learned during my first year as an art student, is that the whites of the eyes are not white. It´s a globe and the color should indicate just that.
















onsdag 29 oktober 2014

Work out at Folkkulturcentrum in Hjorthagen




Have I told you about Folkkulturcentrum? It is my art gym, I go there to exercise my drawing muscles (eyes, brain and hands) two times a week. It is a wonderful place, unassuming. This is what happened today:




Here is the armchair where the model sits. Anyone can be a model. Today I learned that the youngest model ever was 2 months old (he/she didn´t move for the whole session because he/she was asleep.) The oldest was a 99-year old lady. 


Veronica (she is in charge of the portrait painting at Folkkulturcentrum) instructs Vladek,
9 years old, who is a model for the first time in his life.


Vladek with his father Sascha. Below you see my interpretation of father and son. I must point out that I´m the only one who is drawing, all the other folkkulturians paint with acrylics.


Vladek. Pen on paper, quick sketch

 Since I make very detailed drawings I should sit closer to the model than I did today. I could not see his face clearly because of poor lighting. And by the time the 30 minutes were up he had totally changed the position of his head. The rest of his body did not move one bit though!



 One of the men that regulary come here to paint has a very unique style. This is his painting of Vladek.


This is a quick sketch of Sascha, the father, and as you can see it does not look like him at all. This is OK as long as the proportions are fine. In the russian way of drawing you emphasize the structure of the face. You should be able to distinguish the different planes of the face. This is why I need to make
a lot of drawings of human skulls to learn the architectural construction of the face.


Our next model today was Beatrice.


Beatrice, pen on paper, 30 minutes portrait


I love this portrait of Beatrice!! I forgot to ask the name of the gentleman who painted
this but he makes great paintings. He does not worry about the russian way of drawing and he has had some of his paintings exhibited at Vårsalongen at Liljevalchs!


Viktor (by the Gentleman at Folkkulturcentrum)
Acrylic on paper


Viktor (by me)
Pen on paper, 30 minutes portrait



Paul, pen on paper, 5 cm x 5 cm
November 2013

By now I have done over one hundred 30 minutes portraits. Above is my very first portrait at Folkkulturcentrum, november 2013. Two weeks ago Paul showed up again and I am so glad I have learned about the russian way of drawing since the last time I saw him. 


Paul, one year later.


My pencils, 
nicely tucked away in a pencil case


 I also make figure drawings. The model holds the position in 2 minutes, 5 minutes or 10 minutes and
you are supposed to catch the characteristics of the pose, the movement of the body and of course get the proportions right as well.


At the studio I am working with a full figure drawing of Lasse. This is slow drawing. I have spent 8 hours on this drawing. 


And lastly, in the studio I also work on this Bargue. It is so hard!
It takes forever! All I do is use my eraser!



Dear readers;
this object is used as a vertical so you can compare and measure the parts of the model, 
and find out the proportions.  Some of you knew that.