Symbolism and decadence, exhibition at Prince Eugen´s Waldemarsudde

Väinö Blomstedt
Francesca, 1897  (beskuren)


The current exhibition at Prince Eugen´s Waldemarsudde is called 
Symbolism and decadence. The exhibition consists of
over 200 pieces of art; paintings, sculpture, drawings and crafts from public and private collections by well known artists, among others prince Eugene, Richard Bergh, August Strindberg, Hanna Pauli, Paul Gauguin, Eugène Carrier, Edvard Much, Akseli Gallen-Kallela. 
I went wild with my camera to such an extent that the museum guard had to rebuke me twice for being inside the cordons when leaning over to come close enough to get satisfactory image quality.

By the way, symbolism I understand, but why
decadence?? I didn´t see anything that I considered decadent at the exhibition. So I looked up the word decadence in an English dictionary and it had 26 synonyms! Corruption, decay, degeneration, dissolution, downfall, regression and lasciviousness...Well, I get it. It´s
not sex, drugs and rock´n´roll decadence. It´s about death. Decay.



Akseli Gallen-Kallela
Guardian angels (Ravens), 1888



Vilhelms Purvitis
Winter, about 1908



Oskar Bergman
Offerlunden (sacrificial grove) II 1905



Tyra Kleen
Copy of a painting by Puvis de Chavannes , 1897 Le Pauvre pécheur, 1881




Beda Stjernschantz
Överallt en röst oss bjuder...1895



Ivar Arosenius
Self-portrait with bleeding heart, 1902



Agnes de Frumerie
Immaculata, 1897



John Bauer
The harp player, 1903



Janis Rozentals
Döden (the death), 1897

Hanna Pauli
The Princess, 1896



Johan Valters
Birch grove, 1903

Gustaf Fjaestad

The riddle of life, 1919

Here are some symbolic and decadent art that I made in the 80´s and 90´s.

Erica Hedberg

Hope deferred maketh the heart sick, but when the desire cometh it is a tree of life

(Proverbs 13:12)

Pencil on paper, 1989

Erica Hedberg

Without title, 1989

Erica Hedberg

Without title, 1991 (detail)

Erica Karlsson

After the moonlight party, we went to bed, my shadow and me, 1993

Erica Hedberg

Discover America, work as an au-pair, 1981

Erica Hedberg

Decadent Christmas Cat, 1982 (detail)

"A drawing is simply a line going for a walk"

Paul Klee: Burdened Children/Belastete Kinder
graphite, crayon and ink on board
1930 (650 x 458 mm)
Tate Collection

The title of my blog post is a quote from the artist Paul Klee (1879-1940).  The importance of drawing is stressed by many artists. The painter Arshile Gorky (1904-1948) said: "Drawing is the basis of art.  A bad painter cannot draw. But one who draws well can always paint".

So I do a lot of drawing. Every week I present 20 sketches to my teacher. This week I was
short of 15 sketches so I set my alarm at 5 o´clock in the morning to do some drawing before going to the studio. Well. I ignored the alarm and fell asleep again. I have a one hour commute to the studio so in desperation I took out my sketchbook and started scrawling on the paper, riding the bus and the metro during rush hour. Each sketch was made in seconds.

I´ve been apprehensive to sketch on the bus and metro because I don't want to offend my fellow travelers by staring at them. But it was a liberating experience; I had
to draw superfast since the objects were constantly moving. The sketches have a playful freshness about them that I like.

"L", pencil on paper
45 minutes

"L", pencil on paper
45 minutes

45 minutes is like a lifetime compared to whimsical sketching made on a bus in rush hour traffic.
I´m happy that I´ve  improved my drawings skills over the two years I´ve studied drawing at the Farigh Ghaderi studio. The portraits I make now look more like real people than aliens. (See this blog post to see an alien).

Before the summer break I did a portrait of the art student Anna. I think I spent around 10 hours
drawing this portrait. The picture reproduction is not perfect but is it not amazing what you can do when you put your might, mind and strength into something!?

Anna, pencil on paper, 2015

My son Arne as a model

This Wednesday my son was kind to be the model at the portrait painting session at Folkulturcentrum.  Sorry I don´t know the name of the artists but this is how some of us perceived him:

Arne by Vendela (I think)

Arne by Lazlo

Arne by me
pencil on paper, 30 minutes portrait

I end this post with a quote from Frederick Franck (1909-2006):
"I have learned that what I have not drawn, I have never really seen".

Plein Air Workshop with Joe Paquet

A gentle rain over Hagaparken

En plein air is a French expression which means "in the open air" and it´s used to describe the act of painting outdoors. Now, painting en plain air in Sweden in July does not mean the same thing as painting en plein air on Capri, Italy.  Please note the vast difference in weather conditions when you see the pictures above and beneath.

Carl Wilhelm: The Marina Piccolo in Capri and the Siren´s Rock

 

In July I attended a 5-day plain air workshop with the American artist Joe Paquet. He´s an excellent painter and teacher.

This is Joe´s own words about his workshop: This workshop will introduce you to the power and subtlety of the Prismatic Palette. You will learn to capture what makes each day unique through the use of an elegant underpainting, rhythmically connected drawing, structured value scale and solid understanding of color as value.  Further we will delve into how color is affected by atmosphere and the Prismatic Effect. You will never look at nature the same way. Humility and a healthy respect for nature required.

Joe Paquet: underpainting

Joe Paquet: underpainting 

The underpainting is done with a mixture of cobalt blue, black and white. You use more grey in the front, adding more blue to the back as seen in the examples above.  At this stage you´re "organizing and clarifying what you see in nature." The object of the underpainting is "to form descriptive darks that tell the tale of form, character, atmosphere and connectivity." 

When you have the "skeleton" of the painting you start adding color in the same value as your greys.

Joe´s finished underpainting. Note that the trees in the front are grey and the ones 
in the back are more blue.

Here Joe has added color with a variety of 

brush marks and with variety in the edges.

Joe Paquet doing a demo

Downpour over the Royal Haga Park

Mixing colors

When painting en plain air there are obviously a lot of greens around to be caught on canvas and this is how you mix them:

THE GREEN VALUE STRING:

 "the parent green" 2-3% phalo green + 97% light yellow cadmium
"middle value green" 50% french ultramarine + 50% light yellow cadmium
"blue violet" 5 parts french ultramarine + 1 part alizarin crimson

These greens will get the vegetation right; highlights, shadows, cast shadows and everything in between! Can you figure out when to use the light "parent green" or the dark "blue violet"?

Erica Stenkrona: View over Brunnsviken, my first landscape painting (oil on panel) 

 I have 19 pages of notes, I wrote down every word that came out of the mouth of mr Paquet. With tongue in cheek,  I call this blog "a complete guide to becoming an artist".  I must say I feel more complete as a human being and as an artist in the making after having stood by my wobbly easle in the rain, trying to mix the right color value and trying to make sense of all the information in front of me so I could get it down on the canvas. Here are some quotes from Joe that were part of the introductory lecture.

Failed paintings are important.

Embrace the failure (but don´t make the same mistake twice).

You will confront everything you don´t know.

Why?? Why are you doing it?

The world needs authentic pictures.

Tell the world world what you love.

If you don´t bring genuine connection, love and passion into your painting it´s

just another picture.

In place of sensitivity we exaggerate.

Never regret that you didn´t start earlier. Bless that you are here now. You´ll improve from now on.



Joe Paquet: A Gentle Indifference

To see more of Joe Paquet´s paintings click here.

And I never meant to cause you trouble

For a long time one of my favorite songs has been "Trouble" with the British rock band Coldplay. The band was formed in 1996, one year after my son Arne was born. I was never quite sure what the lyrics meant (was it about a spider?) but now I think it is as simple as a person regretting words and actions that, though not intended, hurt another person. 

As a mother I can relate to that. I have done so many mistakes as a mother - but "oh no, I never meant to cause you trouble". Today is my son´s birthday, he is a middle child. It is rough being a middle child. (I am a middle child myself). "The oldest kid gets undivided attention from overeager parents, while the youngest gets more freedom and special treatment. Meanwhile, the middle child is just there, squished between siblings.Right? 

In the book You’re a Better Parent Than You Think, Dr. Ray Guarendi defines MCS as “feelings of isolation, of not belonging. Enjoying neither the parental attention and expectations given to the eldest, nor the relaxed parental standards experienced by the youngest, the middle child is supposedly lost in the shuffle, caught in between with no unique position of his own.”(Quotes from Yohana Desta on Mashable).

Arne before he became a middle child

Well, we recover. And I know "that my [parents] never meant to do [me] wrong." I made this picture for Arne for his birthday. It is my humble way to express that I always loved him and I am sorry for words and actions that have caused him trouble. "I never meant to do you harm"!

Pencil and crayon on Canson paper

Someone has to be the middle child!

Russian painting on the lid of the wooden 
box where I keep my Caran d´Ache pencils

The Evolution of a Painting

Allt ordnar sig, oil and textile on canvas, 2011

In 2011 I painted this clever looking little figure assuring that everything will work out. Don´t you just frequently need to remind yourself of this; everything will work out in the end?

The other day my brother was celebrating his 50th anniversary and it is customary to bring a gift to the birthday child. I decided to make a painting but I was slow in executing my intention;

a couple of days before the handing over of the gift I got started. 

Painting with oil paints is no quick thing; first you need a canvas of suitable size and grain. Then you have to prepare the surface, in my case I used a "used" canvas so I had to apply two layers of gesso (a mixture quite similar in the consistency of sour cream). 

While the canvas was drying I made some sketches. What I came up with was a rather serious looking young man. 

I traced the sketch onto the canvas and since I was in a hurry I had no time to adjust anything. The serious looking young man morphed into someone else.

To get the nose and lips right (or at least acceptable) I looked at the paintings of Gustaf Lundberg and Alexander Roslin for guidance.

It all works out (in the end), oil on canvas,  2015

I wanted to write something inspiring but I usually use stencils when I put words on my paintings since I am not very good at writing freehand. Unfortunately the time was running out so I did not have time to make new stencils. Incredibly, tucked away in a corner of my studio I suddenly found stencils that I had already cut out in 2011. With a swift hand I finished the painting and now I hear it is hanging on the wall in my brothers apartment.

It all works out in the end... 

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!