Beautiful Sister

A portrait of my beautiful sister, made in 2009.

A little extra present I gave her for her 20th birthday.
I've used acrylic colours, and I believe the painting is 50*50 cm. 

Don't ask me why I chose to make a swirly greenish background!
In the original picture she was standing on a boat with lots of trees and water in the background - I just couldn't be bothered painting so many details!

I'm sorry about the poor quality of the photos - they have been snapped with my mobile phone camera.

As you may recall, I posted a silly drawing of my two sisters making funny faces a while ago.
Click this little image and it'll take you to the original post. 

Orange Swirl

New abstract 3-piece painting made with acrylic paints.

This is no complex painting in any way, but it's only a bit of doodling. I simply needed to fill a space on our livingroom wall that looked extremely empty, so I got inspired by the decorations that were already in the room and tried to match the colours. As you can see I've got a thing for orange ;)

Some old finds from back home

Happy New Year everyone!
I went home to my family in Sweden for Christmas, and I haven't really realised before - but oh my they've got lots of my old paintings and sculptures up in their house! Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so I only snapped a few bad quality photos with my mobile phone. Here are a few of the things I made between 2003-2006. Nothing great, but it's fun to get reminded of them, and think back about the time when I made them.

This black rose with the barbed wire and the blood drop (I know, how dramatic!) was made during my college years, either in 2003 or 2004. It was simply my dark period, and I loved everything black. This painting was made with aquarelle (water colour) on normal paper.

One of the first things I made in ceramics class in college was this swirly vase made of red clay.

Vibrant colours - african women. Two tiny little aquarelle painting made on A5 paper, and mounted together in a big wooden frame. Made in 2004.

What can I say... feet. Imagine them sticking our from underneath a duvet. Acrylic painting from 2005.

A simple red rose with a drop of water that I painted for my lovely grandma in 2005. Nothing special about the painting, but it's very simple and it has got a lot of contrasts.

These two paintings are about opposite feelings, or something like that. "Dream, Fear" and "Light, Dark, Love, Hate". They were simply made on a rainy day when I had nothing better to do than to take out my acrylic paints, and doodle and splash on a couple of canvases. I must say, drenching the brush in red paint and splashing it on a pretty much finished painting was a surprisingly good feeling.

Nautical 3-piece painting from 2011

When I first moved in to my boyfriend's house I realised he didn't have any decorations whatsoever. I went a bit mental with the empty rooms since I am one who loves decorations, and who always had my walls filled with all sorts of things, such as drawings, photos, etc. In my opinion every room needs a small decorative item - even the tiny guest bathroom in the hallway! That's actually where I hung up this nautical inspired 3-piece painting of mine. I was inspired by the round window in that bathroom, which very much reminded me of a window in a boat. What better theme to have in that bathroom then than a nautical theme ;) 

This 3-piece nautical painting is made with acrylic colours, and the swirls you can see are simply painted pebbles glued on with superglue. I really think that 3D objects in paintings make a huge difference, and they really draw attention to the painting as a whole. Below you can see each painting as a close-up.

I really wanted to paint a compass, and as you can see that is the main piece of the painting. I thought the text "Wherever you go, take me with you" really suited it, and it sounds really sweet.

Abstract Art - Not just laziness

Many people think that abstract art is just an artist being lazy, throwing paint on a canvas. Sometimes that can be the case (I know, I have tried!), but usually there is actually a lot of thought behind the painting, even if it doesn't picture anything concrete.
The choice of colour, the movement in the picture, contrasts, shapes... a lot of different things play their part in abstract art. You might want to emphasize something in a room or simply draw attention to it, and you can help doing that by making a painting with certain shapes or colours.

Last year I lived in a big attic room with white painted walls, and I desperately needed some colour to make the room look a bit more interesting. That's when I painted this 3-piece painting above. I chose the colours cause they matched the other decorations in my room (when I hung up the painting, all my other decorations suddenly stood out a lot more), and the reason I made it on 3 canvases was to make it cover as much of the wall above my bed as possible. The bigger, the better, right?! ;) I also did it because I like the way the picture flows through the 3 canvases.

When I paint abstract art I actually prefer to divide the painting up on several canvases. It sure makes the painting look more interesting, and you get a wider variety and more options of what you can do.

The fairy-like lady in the forest - acrylic painting from 2010

I don't know what I was inspired by when I painted this acrylic painting back in 2010. I had bought this massive canvas, and I just wanted to create a fantasy world - a little bit fairy-like. I wanted to achieve a contrast - gloomy and mysterious forest colours with that fiery red hair. Don't ask me why I painted a naked woman in the forest only wearing a necklace with a dragonfly, cause I honestly have no idea. I never in beforehand decide what I'm going to paint, but it just happens... (unless it's a portrait of someone I know) I know I had just read a book a few months earlier that mentioned a dragonfly necklace, so I guess I was influenced by that.
I am not very happy about the proportions in the painting - they look quite unnatural. But I do like the overall look of it - I really worked hard on the colours.
If I had the energy I would change a few bits in it, but after all this time I really can't be bothered. It might just make it worse!
What do you think?