Per Åke Magnusson
Paintings
9th november - 25th november 2007
Nowadays
I most often work in a simplified manner with three horizontal areas in
different colours. There may be any colours but the beholder may
experience the areas to look like a landscape. It’s probably because
the eye seeks a meaning in what we see. It’s not really a picture of a
landscape but it will be interpreted as such.
For me this has
become interesting because I can freely create a picture without
getting stuck in what it’s supposed to depict. I can use relatively
free colours and they will still be interpreted as a landscape. I can
concentrate on the colour itself and the relationship between the
areas. It’s up to the beholder to interpret the picture.
Back in
time I was painting in a more depicting way, often landscapes and often
painting them right there on the spot. It was a nice feeling to be
sitting out there and feel and experience the landscape and the nature
– colour, shape, temperature, scents. I saw animals being less afraid
because I was sitting pretty still for quite some time in the same
spot. But my way of working changed. The way of building a picture
changed. Long after that I continued to go out in the landscape to
paint. I did it even though I knew beforehand that I wouldn’t create a
picture that I could approve of. Finally I had to come to the
conclusion that I would no longer find my pictures confronting the
landscape. I let go of that kind of locking regarding depicting. After
periods of pictures of landscapes used up by mankind, with oil tanks,
tank lorries, asphalt plants etc., I slid over towards more independent
pictures originating from rust stains. After a period of pictures from
details in a few paintings of battle scenes made by the Italian
renaissance painter Paolo Ucello, I have been working with pictures
with just a few colour areas for the last seven or eight years.
The
reduction down to three (sometimes more) coloured areas is a limitation
in itself. But I have also gained a great freedom within that
limitation. A freedom to start with any colour. And a freedom to
continue with the colours I want to combine for the moment. It’s been
interesting to see how freely the colours can be combined and yet still
be interpreted as a landscape. I can vary the impression with
differences in colour and in the relative sizes of the areas or with
varying the orientation between landscape and portrait.
In my
colour combinations I often seek out something calm, as a base for your
thoughts to wander around. A point from which you can start seeking out
associations. Actually, my pictures are much like an origin for travel
inside you. A place for meditation. It’s probably been like that with
the creation of the pictures as well. Back in time I was painting more
actively, taking a few steps back and then right back with the
paintbrush again. Now I mostly sit there watching, thinking and change
or adjust a coloured field. Then some more watching, waiting and after
a while, new adjustments. That doesn’t mean that the pictures are
created rapidly – on the contrary. Mostly I have been over the same
coloured field many times with small variations in colour. In time
there might be something interesting in the interaction between
different layers in the picture. You should be able to slightly notice
something from different stage. It can absolutely not be something that
feels straight and perfect. The picture shall – just as we humans –
have it’s imperfections. It may very well be something annoying that
the beholder wants to adjust. What’s perfect is not interesting.
Above all I want the pictures to be a base for meditation or for the free associations of the mind.
Per Åke Magnusson