From last years exhibition

And here follows some more photos from last years exhibition. Enjoy!

Hello there!

It's high time that i publish some photos of my first ever exhibition in May last years. I've not been all bad though, I did publish a few pics from the event on my facebook page https://www.facebook.com/ArtbyJenniferGessler/, just been too much of a perfectionist with editing the photos to put on the blog. Anyway, here it goes.

Experiments and self portrait in water colour

About a year ago I got the sudden inclination to start experimenting with water colour. It's been a while since I've worked with it so I started off with painting according to some instruction videos on youtube (gotta loove youtube!).

Here's the result of one of those video instructions:

Not too bad for a first try I think. What I really liked with this was that it was all different shades of the same colour mix. I used only blue and black and made different amounts of water to create the different shades. It was really fun to do!

After that, I decided to go a little hard core and do a self portrait, as you do 😎
I was inspired by the book "Skin - the Song of Kendra" by Ilka Tampke which I had just read. It is about a young girl in celtic Britain, with elements of both history and fantasy, which I love! Definitely a book worth reading!
Anyway, the celtic mythology and art has always fascinated me so I used some celtic patterns in the water colour along with some nature elements around the actual portrait. Below you can see the progress from a few of my sessions. Took much longer than I anticipated.

Session 1.

Session 2.

Session 4.

Session 7.

And done!

I would probably have worked a bit more on the hair, but the paper was already "full" with colour so I decided to stop before I accidentally ruined it.

This portrait now hangs in my father's home, much to his delight. 😊

I'm back

After a long break, I'm back working on my blog. I will be more diligent in updating and adding photos of my work.

I have started the time consuming task of going through old my finished paintings in order to photograph and publish them. Since I used to buy canvas in rolls, rather than already pinned to frames, I have had to start with putting the frames together, which is much trickier than I expected, before actually nailing the canvas onto the frames. This is one part of artistery that does not receive enough attention, in my opinion. Had I known how tricky it would be, I would have signed up for classes on that subjevt alone!

Anyway, let's get onto the fun part of an artist's blog; the art!

This is a personal favourite of mine; I made it in 2007 and it's called "Rosenkvist", which means Branch with Roses.

I hope you like it as much as I do. I will be back shortly with more uploads.

 

A variety of the type of sketches I usually do. The first one I made from a a photo of a statue by the Swedish artist Carl Eldh. This particular statue is called "By the spring". For those of you who do not know this particular artist, I can really recommend a visit to his former gallery, now museum, in Stockholm: Carl Eldhs Ateljé. You have probably seen some of his works around the city, one of his more famous works is the statue of August Strindberg in Tegnérlunden, Stockholm.

There is a delicate touch to his statues, showing lots of emotions, especially the faces are stunning. I wanted to try to communicate the same level of emotions as he did in his statue.

 

 

The second sketch is made from a fashion Magazine that I tore out some pages from (yes, I do that). I wanted to practice drawing people in odd poses as well as fabric, so this girl with her loose blouse and leaning position was perfect for this exercise!

 

 

And finally, and old, dead tree. I found this tree when I was out on a bike ride through Upplands Väsby and had to make a quick sketch of it. I just loved how the light fell on the stem and followed the form around where the branches used to be. It was Beautiful.

Two sketches

I don't have many photos of my work yet, although it is in progress. But we can't have an art blog without any art right? So here are two sketches I did in October 2015, photographed with my mobile phone.

Welcome!

For a long time, I have wanted to start a blog to publish my works of art but, as so much in life, I put it off on a list of things to do ”later” in life. Then I decided I’d had enough with “later” and exchanged it with “now”. This now.

Therefore, welcome to the little corner of the internet where you can see some of the things that I have produced over the years.

What will you find here and which rules apply in the blog?

In this blog, you will find a selection of pictures of finished paintings, quick field sketches and ideas. I will also be writing of what inspires me and my experiences of new challenges, materials and techniques. You are more than welcome to send me comments with constructive criticism, suggestion and ideas of new things I might try. However, this is a friendly art blog. Any comments that contain any form of personal attacks, insults, racism or sexism will be deleted. Visitors that repeatedly should send such comments, will be blocked from the blog.

My styles

I can’t say that I have one single style for painting or drawing. I quote Elvis “the King” Presley on this matter; I paint/draw all styles. (Elvis once answered a question of which kind of music he likes to sing with “I sing all kinds!”) Usually I simply experience, trying different ways to see what works and what does not. Whenever I'm uncertain how to use a certain type of material or a specific technique, I usually look it up on the internet (youtube can be a great place for learning!) or one of the many books I have. Practice makes better J

I can, however, say that the materials that I choose most often are oil, acrylic and graphite, although other materials come into the mix depending on the mood that I’m in. A new favourite is actually water colours, or aquarelle as we call it in Sweden. What I like about water colour is that it, in comparison with oil and acrylic, have adjust to the paper, the water and the pigmentation of the colours. It’s the materials that are in control, I’m simply trying to guide it into a picture.

That’s it for my first post. I hope that you will enjoy my blog and what I post here!

Take care!

Jennifer