spanculato

painting painting painting painting painting

2010-10-23T01:13:00.001-07:00

I have not updated the 2010 gallery all year. However, this does not mean that I haven't been productive; I have been making steady progress throughout the year (amid all the diapers) and I am going to put up some of the stuff I have made before the end of the year.

In Situ 2

2010-07-01T04:09:00.000-07:00

Exhibition over

2010-06-28T05:42:00.000-07:00

As you may have seen in my last post, I had an exhibition during may, which was generally speaking politely ignored by just about everyone. While this is disappointing for me, it leaves me with a pretty basic question; what is my reason for doing this?

The answer, like it has been before, is that I like doing the painting, so I think I'll keep doing that, and we'll see what happens. As you can see above, there was at least one satisfied customer.

Exhibition

2010-04-25T22:56:00.000-07:00

2010

2010-03-12T05:39:00.000-08:00

The new year started on a sad note for my family, as my mother passed away from cancer in january. I have been painting quite a bit since then, but I am waiting to publish the paintings on the website, as they seem to form some sort of coherent whole, and I want to see where I/they end up before I make them available.

Also, it looks like I might put on an local exhibition of sorts in May. I plan to email people with the details if it pans out.

Finally, the local division of Tekna, the association of technical and scientific academics, decided to use one of my paintings as part of their annual prize for innovation. Here is a link;

https://www.tekna.no/portal/page/portal/tekna/aktuelt/artikkel?p_document_id=793609

For non-Norwegians, they gave the prize to a firm that seem to use biological entities, like shellfish, to detect pollution around oilrigs.

Sigurd.

2009-11-15T11:05:00.000-08:00

As you might be able to deduce from the last few paintings in the 2009 section, I have recently become a father. I have done one painting of Karen pregnant, one of Sigurd asleep in his crib, and one of a more freeform jumble of impressions from the birth. Here is the little dude;

2009-04-26T08:03:00.000-07:00

After easter, I decided to have a go at painting, from photos, some of the mountains from around my family's cabin. This is a pretty different motif from what I usually do; more decorative and perhaps also less dense with meaning and emotion.

Fugl Fønix

2009-04-15T06:36:00.001-07:00

Use of symbols

2009-02-08T03:44:00.000-08:00

I have usually not been too keen on the use of symbols in the paintings, as I think this very quickly becomes more of an intellectual exercise than the more immediate emotional impact I tend to aim for.

However, my latest painting has seen symbols creeping in; a nest, a lifesaving buoy, a tree. I guess this will be ok as long as symbols don't overpower or obscure the feel of what the picture is about.

Borderline infant.

2009-01-26T00:28:00.000-08:00

I have decided to blog some of my thoughts on certain paintings(the ones that have thoughts behind them), and this weekend I finished the one above.

I called it Borderline Infant, and I guess the image symbolizes the paradoxical demands babies(and, by extension, all of us) put on their caregivers. They are utterly dependent and absolutely demanding, living in greedy and devoted symbiosis with their caregivers. I guess the task of the caregiver ultimately will be to somehow extinguish the flames of their own need for freedom and self for a while, which, I have noticed, is easier for some people than others.

2009

2009-01-06T10:53:00.000-08:00

A new year, a new gallery on the website.

I have been experimenting with some new techniques that more resemble watercolours than anything else, and my experience thus far has been very mixed. The paint sort of flows all over the place. When it dries, it sometimes creates striking happy accidents, and it sometimes frustrates the hell out of me for hours and hours.

It is interesting, though, as the happy accidents, when they are good, are beyond what I can achieve by my usual means, like in this picture; my first of 2009.

Bacon at the Tate.

2009-01-04T07:15:00.000-08:00

Went to the UK recently, and had a chance to look at the exhibition of one of my great favourites, Francis Bacon, at the Tate. Amazing stuff, but way too many people.

2008-11-20T08:56:00.000-08:00

2008-11-06T06:30:00.000-08:00

Some new paintings have been added, check them out in the "2008" section.

2008-11-02T04:20:00.000-08:00

I have made a book that I am now selling through my webpage; it is a 42 page, 31*31 cm full colour glossy hardcover book, and I am selling it for 600NOK.

I was pleasantly surprised at how good it looked, but then again, it costs a lot to make. The benefits, though, are that I can edit the whole thing at home on my computer, and so the book can be continuously updated as I make new paintings.

And this is what it looked like...

2008-09-19T05:43:00.000-07:00

The whole thing went well, and thanks to all friends and colleagues who came by for a look!

Exhibition

2008-09-17T04:25:00.000-07:00

I am, sort of spontaneously, joining an exhibition for two hours tomorrow thursday the 18th of sept. Have a look;

http://www.touscene.com/nb/program/arrangement/1374

Painting through summer

2008-08-20T13:34:00.000-07:00

As you can see in the 2008 section of the website, I have had a relatively productive year and summer, with the last few paintings being made during my summer holidays. I am enjoying it, and I got to use the half-finished barn at my in-laws place Hovland as a studio in between bouts of refurbishment.

In situ

2008-08-19T11:14:00.000-07:00

A couple of friends of mine bought one of my paintings, and decided to put it on the wall of their new apartment. I thought it looked pretty good there, and thought I'd share it with you all.

my palette

2008-06-19T13:48:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of my palette, which is basically a big plastic drawer from my days in the navy. I both mix and keep my colours there, alongside sponges, tissues and brushes, which explains why the thing is such a mess.

Some day I might organize it, but, then again, probably not..

New paintings.

2008-06-08T05:48:00.000-07:00

If you have a look in my 2008 gallery, you will see that I have been relatively productive recently. These new paintings are from the last few weeks, and were mostly done while listening to the new Booka Shade album and a 3-cd compilation from my old favourites, Faith No More.

I have realized that starting several paintings at the same time makes it easier to make progress, as having something halfway-done around the house annoys me, and so provides impetus.

self-portrait

2008-02-24T08:32:00.000-08:00

For those of you that know me, you might be able to spot that this is supposed to be a self-portrait of sorts. It sort of freaked me out to look at myself on the canvas when I was finished, as most of my previous stuff has had a safe distance to the personal, but I guess taking a look at oneself is neccessary every once in a while. My mum and grandma, who both saw this last weekend, said they could see both my uncle and my granddad's features in this is well.

Lehmann

2007-11-10T09:32:00.000-08:00

Thought i'd do my bit to promote my old friend Krischan's music(he used my paintings for the covers of his last couple of albums under his Lehmann moniker; Randalaise and Jung). He has generously made his output available for free download on his webpage, www.randalaise.de, so check it out if you are interested; he does a sort of folky lo-fi singer-songwriter thing. It's in german, and he calls it post-postmodern, inspired by both Suicidal Tendencies and Guns 'n Roses. Obviously.

it's been ages..

2007-11-10T09:25:00.000-08:00

since i last wrote on this thing. Exhibition last autumn went well, here is a link to a story my local paper did;
http://www.sognavis.no/lokale_nyhende/article2256795.ece

(in norwegian)

Making frames

2006-08-03T08:41:00.000-07:00

I am about to head up to my hometown, Øvre Årdal, and so I've had to prepare the pictures for exhibition. This involves making frames, and that is not a particularily pleasant process.

Planks are bought, then sawn at a 45 degree angle. Then comes trying to make the planks agree to form a rectangle at the same time, finishing up with a layer of spraypaint, all of which happens inside, as I have no balcony. Not much fun, nor is it particularily interesting.

Tracking an image

2006-07-14T03:28:00.000-07:00

It is mid-july, and I thought I'd post a visual tracking of the changes made to a painting I worked on for a while. The progress seen above represents the usual twists and turns the images take as I play around with them, trying to get balance, motive, texture, modelling and colour to all work towards a whole that feels acceptable.

Looking back, the second picture from the right could have been a good stopping point, but I kept going, trying to fix some irritating details, and so the picture changed completely. This is often a problem; the vibrancy of brushstrokes at the onset are often lost to my nitpicking. However, I thought the end product was cool; have a look in the 2006 section of my webpage, and see what you think.

August exhibition.

2006-06-11T09:25:00.000-07:00

It's mid june, and I have recently been invited to take part in the Exhibition for the Målrock Festival. The festival will take place in Årdal in August, and celebrates the use of local language and dialects in contemporary culture.

I have taken part in this twice before, but it seems this year will be slightly more high-profile and professional than the previous ones, so it should be good fun.

Also, I now have more of an incentive to paint, which has resulted in me actually getting off my arse (always a good thing).

may 06

2006-05-07T11:46:00.000-07:00

It's mid-may 2006, and I have created this blog as a means by which I can track the erratic process of trying to paint stuff, plus writing about whatever else i feel like.

It has been a while since I have painted anything, but recent weeks has seen me finish one painting, and getting a good start on another. The finished one, which can be seen on spanculato.com as well as i this post, represented a return to satisfaction; looking at the finished product over a couple of days on my wall left me feeling good, quite simply. No nagging sense of changes that needed to be made, no feeling of the motive being too crude, stereotypical or inconsequential. Thinking that it was good enough.

The one in progress is interesting. I might fuck it up, because its charm is now in the energy of the lines and textures, and I might go over it too much, or without thinking, and leave it lifeless and dry

Overall, however, after not having painted much since november, it is both satisying and good fun to have a go again, although I have to admit that I feel like my enthusiasm for it might evaporate just as quickly as it came.

We'll see.