Me and Knut
There is quite a lot of downtime in my creative process, so it's nice to have some company.
The choice of motif
When I choose a subject to paint, I rarely start with a clear purpose. It often starts with something everyday: pictures taken on a walk, a trip, a moment with the dog. I collect them digitally, place them next to each other, let them speak. It is rarely the individual image that carries the value, but the relationship between them – something arises in the space between, in the rhythm, in the breathing of the composition.
It is at that moment that I know if there is something to build on. Not because the subject has to say something, but because it feels like it. For me, the images are personal, but they will probably appear messy or indefinite to someone else. And that doesn't matter. I am not looking for clarity, I am looking for something that holds the gaze, that carries an inner light, a kind of landscape to place thoughts in.
Many of my pictures contain a perspective, a sky, a depth – a kind of room to enter. I build new worlds from old fragments. Often they are pictures I have taken myself, sometimes they are ones I remember, or find in passing. The important thing is not where they come from, but how they feel together. It is not about understanding why, but about feeling when.
The studio
This is where I spend most of my time, it's a place that makes no demands but expects miracles.
Paint
I paint mostly in acrylic but also watercolor and spray paint find their way in. In addition, I work with my wall printer which enhances the realism in some of the motifs.
In the digital process I search for a new motif, something that carries a kind of meaning through its balance, its friction, its presence. The images that make it through this first selection become the basis for something new, something that could perhaps become a painting.
Painting adds something that digital cannot: time, body, gaze. The material experience. Through color, surface and movement, the image is transformed again – from composition to action. I paint not to copy what I have seen, but to manifest something that is greater than each individual part. A new world, a new space.
I try to limit my visual material, like you limit your color palette. Not to exclude, but to deepen. It's like life: we choose a few places, a few people, a certain path – not because there are no other options, but because we need a context to work within.
That's how I build my images. As fragments of time, as a kind of story. Not straight, not finished, but meaningful enough to stay in. Something in me wants to understand, but something else just wants to remain in the experience itself – the silent, composite, vulnerable.
Inspiration
My inspiration draws strength from nature, it is in the forest and by the lake that I find energy and time for reflection.
