THE EXHIBITIONS

increases occurred, my ability to paint ceased.

(1) The Beginning.

    The initial two paintings, that together form the first section, called "The Beginning", constitute the root of the entire exhibition. It is from these two works that everything develops. I regard them as something exceptional and I feel lucky to have been able to capture this moment of birth. It is as if having a camera, up and ready to take a photograph, when something unexpected and spectacular appears in the viewfinder. The finger, in a reflex movement, takes a picture and then the moment is gone.

Go to the exhibition Transformation, section The Beginning.

(2) Fragments.

    If it can be said that the first section represents birth, I associate the second, called "Fragments", with discovery, and connected with this, the beginning of growth. It is a large inner landscape that is covered, and the paintings are characterized as a whole by large variations both with regards to themes and choice of color. As the title of the section indicates, no connections between the discoveries are seen, but perhaps there is a presentiment of this. This whole jumble leads up to an obvious ending marked by painting No. 25., where red and blue are positioned against each other. Balancing in a hazardous equilibrium. And drawing closer to each other ...

    My painting was already characterized by a slight case of hubris. When I stood before a fresh, white piece of cardboard, there was never a question of there not being anything to paint. With a great portion of confidence and energy, I let myself loose on the unpainted surface. What I was going to paint specifically, however, I had no idea of whatsoever. The painting process progressed in such a fashion that many paintings were being produced during a given period of time, but I worked only on one painting at the time. The other unfinished ones were in a stack underneath my bed. After working a while on a painting I would stop, not knowing how to continue. I would put this painting on the stack to mature, and I would go through the unfinished ones and pick the one I was ready to continue working on. When a painting was finished, I signed it with the current year. This explains why painting No. 1. is signed 1991, while some paintings in the next section are signed 1990. It took a long time to determine the position and form of the white section in the middle of the painting. This was the usual way of working: In the beginning I had no idea whatsoever what the painting would look like in its final shape. After working a while I would reach a point where I suddenly had a clear notion of what the finished painting would look like, but it could take several weeks to mature and finding its exact shape.

    At large, this was a good period for me, life was kind to me. Among other things, I began singing in my Student Nation's choir - this also being a process of discovery, since I had never sung before in my life. It also had the benefit of meeting nice and stimulating people. Afterwards, I have realized that this was a healthy counter-balance to the loneliness that characterizes painting. It was a great pleasure to go down to the Nation and up to Tornrummet (Swedish - literally means "the room in the tower") for Monday night's rehearsal.

Go to the exhibition Transformation, section Fragments.

PAINTING TECHNIQUES

    Starting the work with "Transformation" represented a substantial change compared to my early painting, and this is true not only in the spiritual realm, but also regarding painting techniques. I have learned all technique by myself. I have never studied painting and I have never had a teacher. Furthermore, I was not interested in art history. Instead, my entire development of painting techniques has been done in close concert with the work on the paintings.

    An important discovery, that has had a great importance for me as a painter, is that of multi-layer painting. This means that many transparent layers of paint are applied with a brush, with the effect that the layers below shine through the layers above. A good example of this is painting No. 23. The detail shows an orange color that has been achieved by thin layers of red and yellow on top of an opaque red layer. Painting No. 33 is another example where the same basic technique has been used, but as the detail shows, the result is quite different.

    How do these discoveries come about? It is of course difficult to describe such a complicated process, however, some important observations can be made. My paintings have all been made due to a strong inner drive to present those themes that are shown in the paintings. This strong drive has also resulted in a strong need to be able to express this inner reality. This has resulted