blacks and yellows

This week I only managed to do one self portrait, which means only one day in the studio :( I've had some commission work to do at home.




This is another of my projects. I'm not sure yet where I'm going with this one, only that the paper is very large and I'm planning on filling it with my little "cells".

My studio mate had brought a sunflower for a still life painting. She pointed out the similarities between the flower and my drawing.

Nothing beats nature...


Tomorrow the girls and I fly off to Greece! Mattias' three weeks of freedom in the sun are over. We'll spend one week roasting somewhere, perhaps on the island of Thassos, and then we'll all go back to the cold, rainy north again. Yay.

Hope you all have a great week!

Ilva in Uppsala

Yesterday evening I went to the opening of Ilva Berettas photo exhibition at Ekocaféet in Uppsala. I know Ilva only from the blog community; she lives in Tuscany, Italy, writes about food and photography in three languages and is an extremely good photographer. I couldn't stay long, just in between trains, but I had a very nice time during my short visit. This was the first time we met in real life – but it was as like meeting with an old friend!

Ilvas photos are beautiful and we were served very tasty – ecological of course – tapas. I'll bring the family here, next time we're in town.







The artist herself.

self studies

I've decided to start every day (when I'm in the studio) with a self portait. Like a morning exercise. That way I don't have to waste any time thinking about what to do, I can get right down to business. When I'm done with the portait, I have a more time consuming project beside me. I'll post pictures of that later.



Oops, turned out a bit skinny here...


Room with a view.

graffiti

Nice, nice, nice – and not so nice.






Door of my brothers house in Gothenburg.

walk my way

This morning was wet and I had to drag Asta around for our morning walk. There are all kinds of mysterious sounds in the woods after the rain; it drips and drops and sighs and cracks. She gets all jumpy and jittery, stopping every 3 meters, perking up her ears, one front paw up, ready to flee. So I have a lot of time to look at the nature around us.

new space

I enrolled in the local art school.
I'm not really sure what I'm doing, but things just sort of happened, and sometimes you have to go with the flow.

I was feeling an urge to work larger and "messier", but I didn't want to mess up our newly renovated studio at home. I also need to get out of the house and meet some new people (no offense, dear husband!) after all we've been living here a year and hardly know anyone (I exaggerate, but still).

After a visit to the schools Open House in the beginning of summer, I spoke with the art teachers. I was welcome to do a "Project year". There will be 6 of us doing our own projects. The teachers reason that the first year students benefit from this as well.

It means I get access to a studio, art teachers - well, everything that's included in the art school schedule. But I decide what I want to do and when I want to be there. And it's free of charge. That's Sweden for you.

This is the studio, I share it with another woman.


This is my corner, my wall.


Sorry Asta, no pets allowed :(

Galleri Hedengrens Trappa

Photos from the opening of my show at Hedengrens Bookshop on Thursday 28th of August. The gallery is located inside, hence the name Galleri Hedengrens Trappa; "trappa" means staircase in Swedish. The bookshop is situated in the centre of Stockholm, at Stureplan.





Some of my work on either side of the staircase. I'm at the bottom with my daughter Olivia and Anna-Lena, one of three responsible of the gallery.


Nature Morte.


This is one of three bookcovers I've been working on. It's called "The way out". Unfortunately I didn't get shots of the other two. I'll post photos of them later.


"Fall" and "Spring" (shot at home).


A whole bookshop at your disposal when you get bored of your mother.


Hello goodbye.


Everything went well, I was very pleased, though feeling quite exhausted afterwards, but in a good way.

I missed Mattias of course, but also all our friends from Gothenburg - it's just too far to travel in the middle of the week. We still don't know very many people in our new surroundings here. But a really old friend turned up, and it was great to see her again. So I'm happy!

sticks and stones...

... can break my bones, but words can never hurt me.
Oh, who am I fooling. Since the show is in a bookshop, unknown people will pass by during the opening tomorrow. I will have good, heavy, coffeetable-books at hand if they say anything unkind about my stuff (just kidding!!).

Sticks – well, twigs actually (the stones are in the previous post)

twig I.


twig II.


twig III.

burning midnight oil

This is some of the work for my first solo show, here in Stockholm, at Galleri Hedengrens Bokhandel. These past few days have been extremely hectic, especially since Mattias isn't here to cook for us... He's enjoying himself in Greece for another three and a half weeks ;)
I've been working late every evening after putting the kids to bed. So I'm tired, it's 01:45 in the morning and now I have done all that last-minute-stuff that has to be done. I'm even too tired to feel nervous, but that will come in due time, I'm sure.

Now I deserve the bed. Good night!

PS! The show opens this Thursday, August 28th, between 5 and 7 pm.
It continues until September 17th. Welcome!



Pumice stones (pimpstenar på svenska).








Close-ups of the above

creatures of the sea

Rosa and the jellyfish.
I found beautiful ceramics by Heather Knight through design this design that.

bye!

Mattias is off to the town of Kavalla in Greece!

He received a grant from The Association of Swedish Illustrators.
Flight, room and board at the Swedish House in Kavalla. So now he'll draw,
draw and draw for f-o-u-r whole weeks. With no interruptions for cooking,
dogwalks, quarrelling children and nagging wife ;)

Well, only until the rest of the family comes scrambling down to join him for the last week.

Right now he's still on the bus, a 2,5 hour ride from Thessaloniki.
Hope all went well on your trip!
God natt, puss puss!

free dog

this land is my land...


...and that land too...


...mine, all mine..!

where did it go?

Summer is already over.
It just ended, quite abrubtly.
I do love the fall, but it came way too early this year,
I wasn't finished with summer yet...











This was just 3 weeks ago, on our summer island, Stora Kornö.
It's in the archipelago, on the West Coast of Sweden.
The weather was extremely dry and hot for almost two weeks, there was a watershortage on the island and our water pump decided to lay off just then. We went swimming several times a day and washed with salt water soap. Drinking water was fetched in buckets.
Evenings were warm and windless and we brought the grill along. Marshmallows were a must.