My Indian impressions from 2 years ago. Next week going there again.
Konstantin Sterkhov. Shepherd. 65x53cm. 2012
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Thursday, March 29, 2012
2 Stages of 1 Work
K.Sterkhov. "Evening Light" in progress.
K.Sterkhov. Evening Light. 51x71 cm. 2012
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Marja Koskiniemi. Interview
Marja, did you look for the watercolour medium or did this medium find you?
Most of your works are quite large. Do you paint also in small size?
When travelling it is easier to carry a small block, but I prefer large-scale paintings. Right now monumental watercolours is my big challenge.
How is your textile experience reflected in your watercolour painting?
It was watercolour that found me after many years of oil painting. A Spanish teacher at the international art school in Stockholm said that my oil paintings look like watercolours. He suggested that I choose between these two media. My choice was watercolour.
Have you instantly found your personal style? If not, what stages did you pass through?
I wanted to paint strong watercolours from the very beginning, but you have to master different watercolour techniques first. I started by painting thin colours layer by layer with distinct lines. When I gradually increased the amount of water, my paintings became more diffuse. I found my personal style when I changed watercolour cakes into tubes and started working in a large scale.
You spend a lot of time in Sweden. Which country, Finland or Sweden, provides you with more inspiration?
Marja Koskiniemi. Adagio. 56x76
Have you instantly found your personal style? If not, what stages did you pass through?
I wanted to paint strong watercolours from the very beginning, but you have to master different watercolour techniques first. I started by painting thin colours layer by layer with distinct lines. When I gradually increased the amount of water, my paintings became more diffuse. I found my personal style when I changed watercolour cakes into tubes and started working in a large scale.
Marja Koskiniemi. Before The Storm. 56x76 cm
You spend a lot of time in Sweden. Which country, Finland or Sweden, provides you with more inspiration?
I live and work in Sweden since 1989, but I will always be a Finnish artist. The sea, one of my great inspirations, is the same in Finland and Sweden. Another source of inspiration are the large fields in the beautiful Ostrobothnian landscape in Finland. The fields give the same sense of freedom as the open sea.
Are there some fellow artists or artists from the past who have inspired you?
Marja Koskiniemi. Song Of Waves. 56x76 cm
Are there some fellow artists or artists from the past who have inspired you?
When I started painting watecolours I was inspired by the strong paintings of the German expressionist Emil Nolde. I also admire the freely painted, large-scale aquarelles of the Hungarian artist Nandor Mikola who lived and worked in Finland.
You express your emotions with colours. Is the process fully spontaneous or do you have some plan or fixed idea of the result when you begin to paint?
I have an idea of what I want to achieve. Watercolour painting is, however, an interesting process during which new ideas are born. I lead the colours to a desired result, but often the colours start leading me instead. Accidentally running colour can inspire into something new and unexpected. A perfectly controlled painting is never the most interesting work of art.
If you fail with a painting do you consider it wasted?
Marja Koskiniemi. Break Of Dawn. 56x76 cm
You express your emotions with colours. Is the process fully spontaneous or do you have some plan or fixed idea of the result when you begin to paint?
I have an idea of what I want to achieve. Watercolour painting is, however, an interesting process during which new ideas are born. I lead the colours to a desired result, but often the colours start leading me instead. Accidentally running colour can inspire into something new and unexpected. A perfectly controlled painting is never the most interesting work of art.
If you fail with a painting do you consider it wasted?
I have learned that you should never discard a painting straight away. Sometimes my artist friends rescue my failed watercolours and make me see the beauty of them. Failed paintings are good material for collage as well.
Marja Koskiniemi. Twilight Time. 56x76 cm
Most of your works are quite large. Do you paint also in small size?
When travelling it is easier to carry a small block, but I prefer large-scale paintings. Right now monumental watercolours is my big challenge.
How is your textile experience reflected in your watercolour painting?
My textiles and watercolours influence each other. I painted a silk organza skirt with a big brush in different blue shades of textile colours many years ago. It resembles my three-dimensional watercolour, a blue paper skirt on a mannequin doll in the exhibition "Watercolour in a different way" a couple of years ago in Finland.
You are also working with glass. Do you find any similarity in approach when you are painting with watercolours and when you are working with glass?
What is most fascinating and at the same time most difficult in watercolour painting and glass fusing is that in both techniques the material lives its own life. You can never fully control the process. Another similarity of these two media is the transparency and the significance of light.
You are an accomplished artist who got international awards for your painting. Most of your works are abstract. Is there any need of studying drawing to become an artist?
Marja Koskiniemi. Tranquility. 56x76 cm
You are also working with glass. Do you find any similarity in approach when you are painting with watercolours and when you are working with glass?
What is most fascinating and at the same time most difficult in watercolour painting and glass fusing is that in both techniques the material lives its own life. You can never fully control the process. Another similarity of these two media is the transparency and the significance of light.
Marja Koskiniemi. Playful Nature. 56x76 cm
You are an accomplished artist who got international awards for your painting. Most of your works are abstract. Is there any need of studying drawing to become an artist?
Drawing is the basis of all visual art and an important part of the education. My favourite technique is charcoal drawing, which I have been practicing for many years.
Marja Koskiniemi
Can you find some typical features of Finnish art and particularly watercolour?
We can compare two beloved artists, Swedish Carl Larsson and Finnish Hugo Simberg. The motif in Larssonґs watercolours are happy, idyllic family scenes whereas the atmosphere is more gloomy in Simbergґs symbolistic paintings with angels and devils. There is both melancholy and humour in his works. During the past few years Finland has been trying to break away from the traditional watercolour painting. Artists have been encouraged to experiment and paint more freely. This tendency has been visible in several watercolour exhibitions as simplified, free, sometimes three-dimensional aquarelles.
We can compare two beloved artists, Swedish Carl Larsson and Finnish Hugo Simberg. The motif in Larssonґs watercolours are happy, idyllic family scenes whereas the atmosphere is more gloomy in Simbergґs symbolistic paintings with angels and devils. There is both melancholy and humour in his works. During the past few years Finland has been trying to break away from the traditional watercolour painting. Artists have been encouraged to experiment and paint more freely. This tendency has been visible in several watercolour exhibitions as simplified, free, sometimes three-dimensional aquarelles.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
The Shanghai Zhujiajiao International Watercolour Biennial 2012
2012 entry is now open!
Judging Committee 2010
The Shanghai Zhujiajiao International Watercolour Biennial Exhibition is organized by Shanghai Qingpu District People's Government and China Artists Association, co-organized by Shanghai Zhujiajiao Town People's Government and Watercolour Art Committee of China Artists Association, in association with Quanhua Watercolour Art Gallery.
This is the first international exhibition that is dedicated to the watercolour medium held in China. Its purpose and focus is to ‘Introduce the Chinese watercolour to the world, introduce the world’s watercolour to China, and let the world understand China’s watercolour’.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Barbara Nechis. Interview
Barbara Nechis is an artist who has developed a style known for its masterful balance of spontaneity and control of the watercolor brush.
The heroes of your paintings are shapes. Do they come to life out of your imagination or they base on life impressions when you create them? They come from inventing shapes, many that reflect those I find in nature. I use the fundamentally abstract patterns of nature both as a source of inspiration and as a compositional element sometimes in disorienting juxtapositions. The resulting paintings allude to the physical landscape without imitating it. My intention is to form an illusion of landscape even though the shapes themselves may or may not be found in nature.
The heroes of your paintings are shapes. Do they come to life out of your imagination or they base on life impressions when you create them? They come from inventing shapes, many that reflect those I find in nature. I use the fundamentally abstract patterns of nature both as a source of inspiration and as a compositional element sometimes in disorienting juxtapositions. The resulting paintings allude to the physical landscape without imitating it. My intention is to form an illusion of landscape even though the shapes themselves may or may not be found in nature.
Barbara Nechis. Flower Illusion_38x56 cm
Your watercolors look very much like painting on silk. Did you have that experience?
I have never painted on silk but have been told so often that my work would look good on silk that a company is now using my work to inspire a line of hand painted silk scarves.
Do you have the whole picture in your mind when you start painting?
I never have a picture in mind but usually after a few strokes my subject begins to emerge. Often I recognize a feeling of a place I have been and will develop it but I am always surprised by the result.
I have never painted on silk but have been told so often that my work would look good on silk that a company is now using my work to inspire a line of hand painted silk scarves.
Do you have the whole picture in your mind when you start painting?
I never have a picture in mind but usually after a few strokes my subject begins to emerge. Often I recognize a feeling of a place I have been and will develop it but I am always surprised by the result.
Barbara Nechis. Fascinating Rhythm_38x56 cm
Do you finish the painting work in one session?
Hardly ever. Some paintings have taken me years to complete. When I get stuck I put them aside, but not for long. I constantly pull them out, looking again and making changes incrementally. I usually have many paintings going at the same time and if I get stuck on one or it needs to dry between layers, I work on another. When my motor coordination feels to be at its peak I work on those that need fine detail; when I feel analytical, I try to solve problems, and when I’m feeling exceptionally creative or totally stuck I begin a new one. By tuning into my own moods and performing the most suitable tasks I eventually finish almost all of them.
Barbara Nechis. IllusionCrevass_38x56 cm
Can you consider your painting style experimental?
Definitely, but I also call it abstract realism. In my mind I am painting real objects, rocks, water, etc. but I have no formulas and try to find new ways to portray my subjects so that my work does not become predictable or stylized. I can’t fail because I have no expectations and no preconceived plan. It would be difficult for me to be this flexible if I expected a certain outcome.
Barbara Nechis. Norway Remembered
Is your work more emotional or planned?
Probably only the beginning strokes are emotional and as a piece begins to take shape the intellectual takes over. Since paint and water behave unpredictably it helps to take a flexible, risk-taking approach. I rarely plan but I think about each stroke as I make it and try to blend intuition with control and structure.
What can you say about your idea of composition?
All of the parts of a painting must work harmoniously together. Many of the other rules I have been taught seem to be extraneous. The working out of a painting involves infinite choices, some easier to make than others. Every stroke can be a struggle because each change can change everything, unlike in a planned painting where there is often little improvisation.
Barbara Nechis. Yosemite River. 56x76 cm
Do you prefer large size to work on?
I have no preference but when I work very large I may work on various areas of the painting intensely as if I were working on a small painting.
What is your paper choice?
I mostly use Arches 140lb cold press but I occasionally work on other surfaces. The 140lb is practical because I ship lots of unframed work and can roll this weight and ship it in a mailing tube.
What is your criteria about your work to consider whether it is complete and satisfactory?
I make sure that every edge and shape is the best I can make it to support the whole. Every part of the painting must make sense and I try to edit what is extraneous to what I want to say? When there is nothing in the painting that bothers me that I can possibly improve, it is finished. I attempt to create something that pleases me and the colors, methods and forms are suggested by what the painting seems to need or wants to be. Sometimes the technical competence that comes with experience can fool us and we fail to examine each piece for its own intrinsic value. In my work I consider the failures to be those in which I have previously painted something similar but better, and the lack of a spark that differentiates the piece to make it memorable apart from my other work. I don’t ever want to be so complacent as to believe that if I did it, it must be art. I destroy pieces that fall below these standards. I find this cathartic and an immense space saver. I also finish almost every piece I begin even if I expect to discard it. As soon as I deem it a failure I no longer have an investment in it and can attack it with vigor. Some of these end up to be quite respectable.
Do you consider it is important to get a basic drawing knowledge?
Absolutely. Without learning to draw there is no understanding of how things are made. Proportion, perspective and depth would be impossible to achieve without drawing skills. Drawing helps you to see.
Barbara Nechis. Majeska Falls. 56x76 cm
What is your criteria about your work to consider whether it is complete and satisfactory?
I make sure that every edge and shape is the best I can make it to support the whole. Every part of the painting must make sense and I try to edit what is extraneous to what I want to say? When there is nothing in the painting that bothers me that I can possibly improve, it is finished. I attempt to create something that pleases me and the colors, methods and forms are suggested by what the painting seems to need or wants to be. Sometimes the technical competence that comes with experience can fool us and we fail to examine each piece for its own intrinsic value. In my work I consider the failures to be those in which I have previously painted something similar but better, and the lack of a spark that differentiates the piece to make it memorable apart from my other work. I don’t ever want to be so complacent as to believe that if I did it, it must be art. I destroy pieces that fall below these standards. I find this cathartic and an immense space saver. I also finish almost every piece I begin even if I expect to discard it. As soon as I deem it a failure I no longer have an investment in it and can attack it with vigor. Some of these end up to be quite respectable.
Barbara Nechis
Do you consider it is important to get a basic drawing knowledge?
Absolutely. Without learning to draw there is no understanding of how things are made. Proportion, perspective and depth would be impossible to achieve without drawing skills. Drawing helps you to see.
Barbara Nechis. Tapestry. 56x76cm
Sunday, March 11, 2012
My 1st Book in Process
Working on the cover and translation (will be in both Russian and English)
New version of the cover
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