“A craftsman is one who first decides what he will make, and then makes it. An artist, on the other hand, is one who just starts working having only vague ideas of the general direction the work is going to take.”

For many years, while I was learning the craft of drawing and painting, I often started with a photo I had taken. I copied the photo by drawing or painting onto paper or canvas as best I could. I was fortunate to grow up near my famous artist uncle, Kjell Aukrust. I remember one of the first things he asked me to do, was to to copy Edvard Munch´s “Girls on the bridge” using gouache paint. Other famous paintings followed and I realized that there is much to be learned from copying the old masters. For many years it was fulfilling just to learn to master the technique necessary to render reasonably good studies of the masters. Then from my own photos, or sitting outside in nature I was able to make naturalistic paintings. But increasingly I found that this was not art the way I wanted it to be. My paintings were pretty, but uninteresting. And the painting process as such also became quite boring. I needed to find a way to paint that was more fun and that resulted in paintings that were more exciting to watch.

Happily I have been able to rid myself of my childhood detailed copycat approach.

When I now start a new painting, I have little or no idea where I want to go. I just add to the canvas some more or less serendipitous, watery paint, often in large amounts. I guide the colours floating around, merging and mixing. I try to follow my intuition, looking for attractive forms or colour combination to appear. In particular I look for interesting abstract value compositions. I know that later on, a strong abstract value composition will turn out to be the backbone of the painting. I tend to choose colors based on my knowledge of complimentarity, but at the same time I allow for some serendipity. It may also happen that I throw in some more or less arbitrary lines with liquid acrylic paint for good measure. These are allowed to partly merge into the wet paint background. I use some containers with a small tip that allow me to draw on the canvas with aquas acrylic paint as if they were ink. This part of the process is very fast, and extraordinary exciting. When I am comfortable with the result, I set it aside to dry.

Then begins an interesting stage where I study the painting from all angles, looking for something that is worth pursuing. This could be some forms, colours or structures that I find interesting or beautiful, or it may be a structure that resembles something real. Human faces seem to appear particularly often, maybe so since we have this extraordinary ability to recognize as faces even the most distorted structures. I look for something that may be developed into a motive that may attract and invite the viewer into the painting. 

A practical trick I sometimes use at this stage, is to take a photo of the painting and load into a drawing App on my iPad. There I easily can play around with various ideas. Once I find an idea I want to pursue, I go back to the painting to develop the idea with real and fresh paint. Again the painting is set aside to dry. This way the painting process may go on for days and weeks with lots of try and errors. The painting always challenge my artistic sense and I continuously feel I need to make difficult artistic decisions.

It is as if the painting eventually gets a life on its own and my role becomes to guide it forward in order for it to reach its full potential. Sometimes this may include technically demanding and detailed painting.  In general the process goes from rough and serendipitous to controlled and detailed.

Sometimes I succeed. But not always, and when I realize that a painting leads nowhere, I bite the bullet, overpaint the canvas, and start from the beginning.

I have observed that my most successful paintings often have some common characteristics. They are quite modern. They mix suggested naturalistic elements with large parts that are on the abstract side. They have a clear focus, and are pleasant to look at. They are often colourful with a strong abstract value composition.

This way of painting is fun and exciting all the way, from the first somewhat arbitrary and rough steps to the often slow and meticilous last details. In the process I use all I have learned regarding composition, colours, proportions, values, forms, texture, line, etc. I believe even the most rough strokes are likely less serendipitous than they may seem. Anyway, it is an extraordinary pleasure to note that this approach to painting leads to paintings much more diverse and exciting than what I could have made up if every step had been planned and thought out beforehand. This process of controlled serendipity seems to lead to a rich spectrum of colours, figures and motives all with a common element which I believe is the beginning of a personal style and  artistic value added.