Why One Painting Is Rarely Enough
I rarely feel that an idea is finished after one painting. A colour, a symbol or a certain atmosphere often stays with me and asks to be explored again. That is usually where a series begins.
Within a series, motifs return, disappear and transform. One work may still be searching, the next sharpens something, while another opens a new direction. Working in series gives me room to experiment with variations and repetitions without fixing an image too quickly.
Series in My Practice
In my practice, I often work in small, compact series. I never decide beforehand how many works a series will contain. Some stop naturally after three paintings, while others continue to grow to fifteen or even more than twenty works. It depends on how long there is something left for me to explore.
Sneaky Hidden Sunflowers
One example is the series Sneaky Hidden Sunflowers. I worked directly on paper, repeating the same composition while allowing colour, material and atmosphere to change from one work to another.
The starting point was a small field of sunflowers, but gradually the series became less about the flowers themselves and more about the light. Gradually, I became more interested in what the light was doing than in the sunflowers themselves.
Icelandic houses
Other series, such as Icelandic Houses, developed from a different starting point. Here, the roughness of the Icelandic landscape meets the steadfast presence of seemingly small houses.
The series is still ongoing because the small house in that immense landscape continues to interest me. I am not finished with it yet.
The symbol of the house has since led me into a new series. New insights and directions continue to emerge from this motif, which I explore on paper, on canvas and in three-dimensional forms.
This is why I continue to work in series. Not to arrive at a final image, but because one work can lead to another, and sometimes into a direction I had not anticipated.