Måns Sjöberg

Steam loco 3

2012-01-26T06:23:00.004+01:00

Last I added the darks and the details. I used gouache white for some glossy parts of the locomotive.

Steam loco 2

2012-01-21T15:19:00.004+01:00

So I started out merging the steam and smoke with the background mist and the patches of blue sky, as well as the shadow of the steam cloud. When that layer had dried I added gradations of cobalt, ivory black and burnt sienna for the loco, the figures, and the station platform...

Steam loco 1

2012-01-13T21:52:00.003+01:00

The Swedish train network was electrified after World War II and these beautiful machines secretly stored in sheds to be used in case of war. But the cold war ended and many steam locomotives and railway carriages are now owned by the Swedish Railway Museum. This is from a recent trip with the loco B 1316, built at Motala Verkstad in 1917 and in regular traffic up to 1966. I'll let you know about the painting process further on. To be continued...

Confirmation

2012-01-06T08:51:00.003+01:00

This is a new illustration for the Kumba book, which is going to be published this year. Finishing a book job is always a thrilling experience.

Sissa painting

2012-01-01T11:00:00.003+01:00

This year starts with a break, which I use for spending time with friends and family. This is my daughter Sissa trying different kinds of brushstrokes like drybrush, wet-in-wet and calligraphy. I think children can be taught quite advanced techniques at an early age.

Step 3

2011-12-23T13:39:00.005+01:00

So I painted the background and also darkened the foreground shadows, as well as added some detail to the grasshopper and the bird's face. Yes, this is in the Barranco de la Cazuela that I painted a few weeks ago. Now it's time for a break. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Step 2

2011-12-22T10:40:00.003+01:00

I made the foreground this morning. Now that it's drying I am obviously writing a new blogpost and when that's done I'll go back to the studio and do the background. Talk to you later!

Step 1

2011-12-19T21:08:00.008+01:00

I can't wait to add color to my next painting. I'll let you know about the result as soon as there is one. So see you soon.

Rock pipit

2011-12-14T20:52:00.004+01:00

This bird means a lot to me because it inhabits my favourite biotope rocky coasts, but also because it's part of why I love rocky coasts. It's difficult to explain. You have to experience it yourself.

Christmas hut

2011-12-10T19:55:00.003+01:00

Kumba and his new friends made a traditional Christmas hut of palm leaves. Bene showed me how to plait the leaves which I guess is the old way of building houses in Lomé, now a completely modern city.

People walking

2011-11-29T18:44:00.004+01:00

A few tips and tricks from my course: bodies tall and slim; heads small, faceless and leveled; feet and legs not too detailed; variation in postures as well as in spaces between the individuals.

Laminatu cooking

2011-11-26T09:53:00.004+01:00

My sister-in-law cooking plasass in our kitchen: spinach, peanut butter, chicken and some wonderful spices. This is a demo painting at my watercolor course, where we did interiors on Monday.

Canarian landscape

2011-11-19T10:35:00.004+01:00

This is Barranco de la Cazuela - "Pot Gully" - where I went birding in the mornings. The light at this latitude is very much stronger than at home. I couldn't put too much pigment in the shadows to pick out the sunlit hillsides.

Grey shrike

2011-11-17T21:43:00.003+01:00

I know the Great grey shrike as a white dot on a telephone wire in a snowy landscape. Here I met it in a sunbaked valley on an island off the northwest coast of Africa, where it chased down a huge grasshopper and then returned to its cactus perch. The local subspecies koenigi will belong to the Southern grey shrike if the species is divided, which is being discussed.

Sanderlings

2011-11-13T08:38:00.006+01:00

Tove and I are back from Gran Canaria. We were in a heavily touristed area but nature started just across the road. These Sanderlings were born in the Arctic a couple of months ago and obviously winter on the Playa del Aguila right outside our hotel area. They spent the nights among the pebbles, the mornings on the sandy beach and the days on some flat rocks. I love their swift jumps and rushes to avoid the waves and their ability to snap any minute creep that the waves wash up on the shore.

Calf and apple trees

2011-10-27T18:08:00.003+02:00

I've been so busy teaching the last few weeks that I haven't had any time over for painting but I still have the ambition to post a picture every week. So this time you'll have to do with an old one - a meadow with apple trees and a calf that I painted six years ago for a nature reserve sign. On Saturday my daughter, my paintbox and I will be heading for Gran Canaria. I'll get back to you after that.

Kumba's teacher

2011-10-19T18:39:00.003+02:00

Kumba's teacher wants him to spend more time studying than playing with his friends. This is one of the last illustrations for Bene Batako's partly autobiographic book, which will be published in 2012.

Sea slug

2011-10-10T07:54:00.008+02:00

This is the sea slug Limapontia capitata drawn for the Marine Research Centers at Stockholm and Umeå universities. Depicting it seemed like an easy task at first glance but proved to be quite a challange. I made use of my experience of painting semi-glossy and semi-transparent candy and added some salt to the wet paint to create the light dappled pattern.

Update January 21st, 2012:
Ian Smith kindly points out that this is Limapontia depressa, not Limapontia capitata. This mistake will be corrected as soon as possible.

Birds in Art

2011-10-01T10:23:00.002+02:00

My friend Peter Elfman just returned from his trip to the US and the world famous exhibition Birds in Art at Woodson Art Museum in Wausau Wisconsin, where we both participate with one painting each. Unfortunately I didn’t have an opportunity to go but Peter took a lot of photos and gave me a cd. Here is my “Lancaster Sands” next to an oil by Juan Varela.

Looking south

2011-09-21T08:41:00.003+02:00

I made this painting at one of my open air workshops in May. It was a beautiful sunny day at Kullen and we found a comfortable ledge where we could paint this headland, the waves and the backdrop haze.

In the kitchen

2011-09-14T09:50:00.011+02:00

The model for this Kumba illustration is my wife's nephew Malakai, British citizen of Sierra Leonean and Nigerian descent. He and his mother and brother visited us a month ago and are planning to move to Sweden in a year or so.

Wagtail on a jetty

2011-09-07T17:46:00.002+02:00

This is one of the watercolors I painted this summer: a wagtail on the stone jetty at Lambertsbacke. I have a lot of nice memories from this spot, like my dad taught me to swim from this jetty to an islet 50 meters away.

Naughty boy

2011-09-01T09:05:00.003+02:00

I have returned to illustrating Bene's book about Kumba, who prefers climbing the trees to seeing his private teacher. Bene has found a publisher and the release is planned for next year.

Wheatear sketches

2011-08-20T21:53:00.003+02:00

I drew these Wheatears during a visit at Kullen in June. I think field sketching is essential to painting. It keeps our minds open and makes for brisk paintings.

Passage

2011-08-11T16:40:00.003+02:00

Here is the finished horse riding piece - my second attempt on the subject. Movement and precision don't combine easily.

Wagtail

2011-08-05T15:41:00.004+02:00

This wagtail was one of the very few birds we saw at Sandhammaren last midsummer. There was even nothing to eat for the gulls - just sand, water and a few flies. But we still had a wonderful walk on a beautiful beach.

Horse riding

2011-08-01T15:12:00.002+02:00

Horses are really difficult animals to draw, perhaps because we are so familiar with them that we’ll detect any mistake immediately. This is Linda on a lusitano.

Back to Sandhammaren

2011-07-25T08:04:00.004+02:00

Another Sandhammaren painting. The wind was coming in from the south and so did the waves, the clouds and the sunshine. A few Sand martins caught flies in mid-air and a wagtail snapped tiny bugs from the wet sand.

Långaskär

2011-07-23T16:01:00.008+02:00

I am painting a few demo sketches of different light conditions for the continuation course. This is an illustration of backlight with the shaded sides of junipers, rocks, and birds facing the viewer, while the sunlit sides appear mainly as light edges. The background island is Långaskär, where I took my first steps as a birdwatcher 38 years ago.

Freshwater snails

2011-07-20T19:38:00.002+02:00

Allow me to introduce the minute freshwater snails Valvata macrostoma and Gyraulus crista. These are the last illustrations for the Havet.se homepage about life in the Baltic, which I have completed now.

Sandhammaren

2011-07-18T20:45:00.003+02:00

I’m on vacation and have been renovating our office as well as visiting family and friends in the south and east of Sweden together with my wife Maria and our children. That’s why I have remained silent for a couple of weeks but now I’m back to show you this painting of Maria at the Sandhammaren beach. We had a wonderful hike there at our yearly two-day honeymoon a couple of weeks ago.

My corner

2011-06-26T06:52:00.001+02:00

This is the combined painting and framing studio I share with three others. It’s nice to have a special place to go for painting. Our kitchen is always very crowded and busy.

Lighthouse revisited

2011-06-04T19:15:00.001+02:00

I never finished this painting on the spot because I got interrupted by something and also I couldn’t figure out how to go on with it. As usual it was the values and perspective that needed some extra thought and handling. I completed it in the studio with a photo reference.

Afternoon song

2011-06-04T19:11:00.005+02:00

The Wheatear is beautifully designed and likes to show up in front of the painter - or rather in front of other Wheatears. I found this one at Kullen, where I had a workshop two weeks ago.

Seabed sketches

2011-06-02T13:20:00.001+02:00

I have made a few sketches of Baltic seabeds for the 50^th anniversary of the Askö marine laboratory in the Stockholm archipelago. The originals will be unusually large – 56x76 cm – an exciting challenge for me.

Evaluation

2011-05-25T07:26:00.003+02:00

We ended the Kullen workshop with an improvised art show for ourselves, evaluating the progress of the day. Next time we’ll go to Falsterbo for some sand dunes, lyme grass and breaking waves.

Beach rocks

2011-05-20T09:07:00.003+02:00

When I teach I usually don't get the flow I need for painting whole landscapes because I am busy giving advice to my students, but I do paint demo sketches like this one. Tomorrow we are going to Kullen for another workshop.

Workshop

2011-05-12T08:33:00.001+02:00

On Saturday I had my watercolor workshop at Stenshuvud (locally referred to as Stainsho). We had a beautiful haze and background sounds made by Green woodpeckers, Sandwich terns, and waves. This is Inga-Lena panting some rocks on the beach.

Cottidae

2011-05-05T08:41:00.003+02:00

The Cottidae family comprises some 300 demersal species that are mostly marine and found in shallow coastal waters in the northern regions. The Clobberhead, Pogge, and Bullhead are also found in the brackish Baltic Sea.

Crustaceans

2011-04-27T09:14:00.008+02:00

The trick with painting crustaceans seems to be to capture the expression of their faces, to make them look semi-opaque here and there and render them a soft underwater gloss on other parts. These are known by their scientific names Corophium volutator, Pallasea quadrispinosa, Palaemon elegans, Pandalus borealis, and Nephrops norvegicus.

Man and dog

2011-04-22T07:47:00.004+02:00

This painting took a great deal of wet-in-wet to start with, to push the background back and make it the supporting character of the foreground friends.

Railway station

2011-04-18T12:20:00.003+02:00

Railway stations are rarely seen as interesting spots for wildlife watching but Faunistica has recently made a survey of the creeps found there. This is one of the illustrations I made for it.

River lamprey

2011-04-09T22:44:00.003+02:00

Jawless fish branched off from other fish before the foremost gills of the latter turned forward to form the jaws. In addition they differ from others by not having paired fins or a stomach. They also sport a cartilaginous skeleton and a light sensitive pineal eye. This is a River lamprey, a species found in European rivers.

Cyprinidae

2011-04-02T12:39:00.004+02:00

The carp or minnow family comprises some 2,400 species worldwide. Its members have no teeth and no stomachs! Instead they chew the food with their rakers of the specialized last gill bow against a plate formed by a procession of the skull. That way they can eat hard baits like snails and bivalves. The picture shows a few of the Bothnian representatives: asp, dace, rudd, ide, and silver bream, all drawn for the Havet homepage that I've been talking about in a couple of previous posts.

Plein air workshops

2011-03-24T18:08:00.002+01:00

My plein air watercolor workshops are now set: Stenshuvud May 7th, Kullen May 21st, and Falsterbo June 18th. We will be painting from 10 am to 5 pm and have an hour's lunch break at a nearby restaurant. Sign up here!

A relict species

2011-03-19T17:58:00.003+01:00

Ringed seals reside in arctic waters but also in the Baltic Sea, Lake Saimaa, and Lake Ladoga. These populations are relicts from the late ice age, when the species had a much wider distribution.

Introduced species

2011-03-12T20:09:00.003+01:00

The Chinese mitten crab came to Europe with ballast water and the mink and muskrat were introduced as game, both from North America. These are illustrations for the Havet homepage.

Lomé

2011-03-05T07:51:00.003+01:00

Béné just returned from his native Togo with his cellphone full of photos. I compiled this watercolor illustration for our book from some of the photos.

Fish

2011-02-22T11:05:00.005+01:00

I am now working on some illustrations for the Swedish Institute for the Marine Environment. The pictures are going to be published on their site Havet and possibly in a future edition of a handbook. From top to bottom: Greater Sandeel, Snakeblenny, and Common Goby.

Beginners' course

2011-02-16T19:37:00.003+01:00

My new watercolor course started on Monday with 12 enthusiastic beginners. I painted these bananas as a demonstration of color mixing. It's always nice to meet new students and see them perform better and better every evening. I am also planning a set of workshops for the summer. It's not yet clear when and where but we'll spend three full days in paintable places and meet all the challenges that nature serves us. Welcome to join us!

Rhytistylus proceps

2011-02-12T21:53:00.006+01:00

Some members of Auchenorrhyncha thrive in dry, sandy meadows. This is an illustration for Faunistica's survey of these insects represented with more than 400 species in Sweden. Rhytistylus proceps lives on Sheep's Fescue.

Kullen

2011-02-03T09:26:00.004+01:00

This is Kullen seen from the lighthouse with the foghorn in the distance. I wanted to use the play of warm highlights and cool shadows to capture the feeling of a beautiful, sunny day.

Sea Campion

2011-01-31T08:38:00.004+01:00

The Sea Campion proved to be another one of those species whose traits are tricky to capture, along with the Lynx and the Sea Holly. It is found on rocky shores, like in the Kosterhavet Marine National Park.

Twinflower

2011-01-24T08:06:00.003+01:00

An indicaror species of ancient woodlands the twinflower is one of the species found in the new national park of Kosterhavet. I painted some illustrations for their signs a year ago and now I have made another few.

Rough-legged Buzzard

2011-01-14T12:02:00.004+01:00

I belong to the snow lovers. The light, the fresh air, and the birds it brings us from the north are wonderful elements for landscape painters. The problem is you can't use watercolors in temperatures below 0, so this was made with a photo reference. The bird is a Rough-legged Buzzard digesting a new-caught vole.

Long-eared Owl

2011-01-10T09:41:00.003+01:00

In winter there is often a group of Long-Eared Owls gathering in some of the trees in the western parts of Lund. They make excellent models as they hardly move at all until it's dark.

Blue tit

2011-01-02T09:54:00.003+01:00

We have had lots of snow for a month and I hope it will stay for another two months or so. It's beautiful and I love the seasonal change it renders the landscape. This is a Blue tit outside my studio window.

Golden Eagle again

2010-12-10T03:56:00.005+01:00

The front cover painting of the predator folder is this year's last illustration. Now I am taking a break for celebrating Christmas and spending time with friends and family. Take care and see you next year.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The Nanny skipper

2010-12-05T09:53:00.005+01:00

The skipper of Nanny looks like a time traveler from the 19th century and may even be one. But he does use GPS and all other modern devices and manages to transport hundreds of tourists to Hallands Väderö every summer day.

Another lynx

2010-12-03T09:32:00.002+01:00

Here is another attempt with the lynx. It's a hard one because I have never painted it before and it's not just like any other feline. It's a peculiar thing, something in its own right.

Red Kite

2010-12-01T07:03:00.003+01:00

I painted this Red Kite for the ornithological magazine Anser. Kites make wonderful models soaring slowly above the painter's head.

Painting session

2010-11-22T19:38:00.004+01:00

We did interiors in class last Monday, with special focus on perspective and light. I made this watercolor of my new private student painting in our kitchen.

Lynx

2010-11-15T10:32:00.003+01:00

It took me a few attempts to get where I wanted with this one. The lynx's head is a lot smaller than those of other felines, that's what pulled my leg.

Eagle on a carcass

2010-11-12T08:45:00.003+01:00

The Golden Eagle so far, still some details to be done on the head and feet...

Continuation course

2010-11-04T14:13:00.002+01:00

We just decided on a four evenings continuation course starting Monday, January 10th. We will be studying the different pigments' properties like weight, transparency, and granulation, then move on to atmospheric effects like midday thaw, evening light, and mist. We will also be dealing with perspective and how to achieve immediacy - letting the viewer feel like being part of the scene. Welcome to join us!

Lighthouse

2010-11-01T12:03:00.004+01:00

We did buildings in last Monday's watercolor class and this is my demonstration painting: the lighthouse of Hallands Väderö from a photo I took last summer.

Course start

2010-10-28T08:54:00.003+02:00

My watercolor course started again a couple of weeks ago. These are some of the first demonstrations: how to use values for shape and how to render structure with different kinds of brushstrokes.

Brown Bear

2010-10-21T08:33:00.004+02:00

The tricky thing with this illustration was to emphasize the weight and strength of the animal and present it as the alert and agile animal it is.

Golden Eagle

2010-10-16T10:26:00.003+02:00

I will be working on the predator folder for the next few weeks. This is a young Golden Eagle.

Wolf sketch

2010-10-06T08:16:00.003+02:00

Here is another sketch for the predator folder. Unfortunately I have never seen a wild wolf, so this is a member of the Kolmården pack.

Eagle sketches

2010-09-30T09:08:00.004+02:00

My friend Jens, who is now working at the Jönköping County Administrative Board, just asked me to illustrate a folder about the large predators in that area. This is one of the sketches so far: a Golden Eagle feeding on a roe deer carcass and another one chasing a hare.

Lancaster sands

2010-09-24T18:00:00.004+02:00

Morecambe Bay is an unimaginable experience even for those familiar with the concept of tide. I spent hours just looking at the seascape being transformed into a landscape by the tremendous force of the moon. This painting is in part a remaking of an oil I made a couple of years ago.

Update May 6th, 2011

This painting was just selected for Birds in Art, a yearly exhibition at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wisconsin!

Bowland

2010-09-18T10:00:00.004+02:00

This is a late summer evening with long shadows cast over the moors of Lancashire. The fell across Littledale is Clougha Pike.

Baniki

2010-09-05T14:27:00.003+02:00

Bene and myself are working on the book about Kumba whenever we get time for it. This is Kumba's new friend Baniki, in a bad mood as usual. The tricky thing about these African illustrations is the light, which is much stronger than what I am used to.

Assisted demo

2010-08-30T16:03:00.009+02:00

This morning I showed watercolor painting to a group of senior citizens at Falsterbo Art Gallery. It's very rewarding to talk about painting with the elderly because you can't get too old for it. My daughter Sissa's preschool was closed for planning so she assisted me with new perspectives on the subject. Photo by Lena Miörner.

Fågelsträcket

2010-08-21T16:17:00.004+02:00

The opening of Falsterbo Art Gallery's annual bird art show is on Saturday August 28th at 12-17 o'clock. This is the top event of my painting year and I want all of you to be there! The gallery is at Hjalmar Gullbergs Plan 1, Falsterbo. Welcome!

One-day courses

2010-08-15T16:08:00.004+02:00

I am currently working on two one-day courses called "Nature and Birds in Watercolor" to be held in Falsterbo September 11th and 12th. You are welcome to join us - please call +46 40 473310 for inquiries.

Morecambe Bay

2010-08-07T09:43:00.004+02:00

Britain's largest estuary makes a marvelous spot for watching migrating waders in fall. I got there in late July and watched the outgoing tide and the birds dividing the beach between them: Herring Gulls and Lesser Black-Backed Gulls on dry sand, Oyster Catchers on wet sand, and Curlews on the shoals. The Stone Jetty Café, originally a train and ferry station serving the export trade to Ireland, is strongly recommended.

Arctic Tern

2010-08-01T12:38:00.003+02:00

The raspy calls of the Arctic Tern make an essential part of the summer atmosphere of the Baltic Archipelagos. This one is perching on a long-abandoned stone jetty in Ragnabo, Småland.

The Marsh

2010-07-30T08:48:00.004+02:00

I just returned from Lancashire, where I visited some friends and explored interesting habitats like mudflats, moors, and pubs. This site is called The Marsh and is found at the east bank of River Lune. Grazing sheep, goldfinches, and lapwings dominated the scene but crab shells and seaweed also indicated that the tide sometimes floods the area, perhaps when coinciding with heavy rain and land-breeze.

Wheatear

2010-07-20T15:22:00.004+02:00

Kullen is one of the places I have dubbed the most beautiful one in the world and it's also a great spot for watching migrating birds as well as nesting ravens, peregrines, and wheatears, to mention a few species. This is a male wheatear that my wife and I encountered on our annual two-day honeymoon.

Garden table

2010-07-16T19:13:00.007+02:00

I'm on vacation and taking the possibility to do whatever I want, like painting in my father's and stepmother's garden in the countryside of Sörmland, middle Sweden. It was 33 degrees in the shade and the horseflies were terrible so I had no patience at all for details, which I think actually improved the painting. So that's what horseflies are good for!

The maid

2010-07-08T12:25:00.005+02:00

After finishing a few more urgent jobs I finally have time for Bene's and my own long term project: the book about Kumba. This is the family's maid Esi being disappointed with Kumba always running away from his duties.

Framing for Falsterbo

2010-06-27T18:40:00.006+02:00

I am busy framing the paintings for the 17th "Fågelsträcket", Falsterbo Art Gallery's yearly bird art show. Erik Lundgren taught me how to frame my watercolors and I really love it. Hope to see you in Falsterbo!

Grains of gold

2010-06-24T17:21:00.005+02:00

Although I have made watercolor my corner of the illustration field, occasionally I also do some ink drawings. This is one of ten illustrations I just drew for a book about everyday grains of gold that my wife Maria and her friend Ulrika are writing.

Work in progress

2010-06-14T08:32:00.003+02:00

This dirty sketch from Stockholm Old Town will be converted into a watercolor painting as soon as I get time for it. At this time of the year I am always busy catching up with myself, finishing all the loose ends that result from intensive procrastinating during the rest of the year, so pleasure projects like this one have to stand in line for a while.

Sunlit crusader

2010-06-07T09:23:00.007+02:00

The crux with bright sunshine is the reflected light, here casting a brown illumination from sandstone rocks on the down facing surfaces, while sides giving onto the sky are bluish. The strong backlight also paints the sunlit side all white.

Old volcano

2010-06-01T08:17:00.004+02:00

A basaltic cliff of solidified magma is what is left of a Jurassic volcano near Frostavallen in Skåne. 161-200 million years after the eruption plants like Woodruff thrive in its basic environment and elvish ambience.

Eurasian Baskettail

2010-05-23T09:23:00.007+02:00

Sometimes evolution produces real beauties like the Eurasian Baskettail, a species with scattered populations in south eastern Sweden. It can be spotted near shallow lakes for example in the Frostavallen area in Skåne.

Sledging

2010-05-18T08:23:00.004+02:00

This is an illustration for Höör's parish, that is informing visitors about what you can do there. I tried to capture the speed by minimizing detail.

Iceland

2010-05-10T20:53:00.005+02:00

This is a memory from a trip to Iceland a few summers ago, I would rather say between the volcanic eruptions than before the last famous one - that's what Iceland is like. The glacier is the great Vatnajökull during a day's hike in the Skaftafell National Park. Two ravens are playing above the cloud shadows.

Surveying butterflies

2010-05-03T20:07:00.006+02:00

Animal ecologist Lars Pettersson at Lund University recently asked me to illustrate how to survey butterflies; the surveyor walks a certain route and notes every butterfly within an imagined 5x5x5 meter box.
The foreground Large Blue Butterfly has an interesting lifestyle. Its caterpillars secrete a sweet substance that attracts a species of red ant. The ants take the caterpillar to their nest and eat its secretions. After wintering in the tunnels the caterpillar begins to feed on the ant's eggs and larvae. Then it hangs itself in the nest's roof and builds a chrysalis around itself. After three weeks it is transformed into a butterfly, crawls out of its chrysalis, and flies away to find a mate.

Future teaching

2010-04-30T07:54:00.006+02:00

My watercolor course at Folkuniversitetet is over for this time. I have had a great time and I hope the students enjoyed it too. The next beginners' course starts October 4th and there will also be two full continuers' days: October 10th and 23rd. Two nature painting workshops are also planned for September 11th and 12th at Falsterbo konsthall as well as three lectures for elders also next fall. Apart from that I am planning a set of workshops for the summer 2011. I will get back to you when the details are clear. Stay in touch!

Model painting

2010-04-19T08:15:00.004+02:00

Even with a professional model like Ellen croquis painting is something we could spend a lifetime on without getting fully trained. Therefor the continuers' course that I am planning for the fall will contain some model painting too.

Birds in Art

2010-04-11T08:33:00.005+02:00

The Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wisconsin has organised Birds in Art since 1976, a jury selecting about 100 works for the exhibition each year. This is one of my entries: the third version of the sheep in Gunnar's meadow. First I left out the Barn Swallow not to overwork the painting but then I took it back again and I am satisfied. The bird and the nearest sheep seem to be interacting just like I felt at that point last summer. I only wish I could paint the sounds of the grasshoppers, birds, and sheep too, as well as the smell of sheep dung.

Mural

2010-04-06T08:48:00.009+02:00

I made this Atlantic underwater scene at Bilingual Montessori School of Lund five years ago, partly for the children to learn the different animals' names in Swedish, English and French. I enjoyed painting it surrounded by kids that asked funny questions like "What's that blob on the left?". Photo by Philippe Longchamps.

Water

2010-03-25T21:27:00.006+01:00

... was the subject of my last watercolor class at Folkuniversitetet. These waves came in from the Baltic Sea last summer. Now you won't be hearing from me until after Easter because my son and I are going for a short vacation. Take care!

At the water's edge

2010-03-22T08:18:00.002+01:00

My youngest daughter Sissa a summer evening in the Blekinge archipelago. The water was lukewarm and full of parr - a very exciting experience for a toddler.

Perspective

2010-03-15T09:21:00.004+01:00

This is the old lighthouse keeper's house on Hallands Väderö, where we stayed a couple of wonderful days with our friends last summer. I used the painting for a perspective demonstration in class last Monday.

Sweets

2010-03-10T12:24:00.003+01:00

This was a lot harder than I thought. Semi-glossy and semi-transparent ... it took a number of attempts with watercolors and a great deal of photoshopping before I was satisfied. Now it's time to eat up the models and paste the candy receipt into the accountancy book.