Beauty is a very interesting form of intelligence
that contributes to our ability to make sense of life.
It's not necessarily the visually pleasing that is beautiful.
That's why I think color is so important
because it gets to you right away.
It kind of gets into your senses before you know
that you're dealing with it.
I have always been interested in different
scales, even when I was a kid I can remember that I put like 10 different
sheets together and tried to paint a large painting, so going big scale or small
scale they're all different formats that I really like. When I work outside, I have
a totally different question that is brought to my work, which is scale
basically and not how often or how many layers you put on top. It's more about the
extension, the relatioship to other sizes, like in this case, the sky and the sea and
the beach which are spatially so unlimited.
I was painting white, white layers on top first so that the red would really sit on
the surface and really glow and not sink into the given materials. I chose three
different reds that are building up a certain depth and kind of fuse together. I
chose to use orangey-red, I wanted a very artificial color to be really popping out
of the whole given color scheme here, like the blue sky or the sandy dunes and then I
used a magenta. I wanted something that didn't exist in nature per se. The most
interesting thing about spraying from a industrial gun is it makes
you so much bigger. It really gives you a totally different body, your reach is
multiplied. You become like superwoman with it. I could allow the movements more
range and by doing so, I got a far more unruly and less schematic painting in the
end which I think is more intimate in a sense.
On the fourth day I think I came to a very
dense red kind of amalgamation of the house and the painting. So it was
nearly like a one to one proportion and I thought it was very strong the red and
very saturated. It was a very interesting collaboration between Klaus and I. He made
me rethink the relationship of the house to the environment and what that painting
was in relation to the painting I've done so far. I realized it did not connect to
the sand or to the environment anymore at all. The next day I was able to understand
that I had to go further away from the house and really paint in the air in a sense
and to have this spray that is actually something that is moving in the
air. It's not just coming from a fixed stick in your hand. So I had to unleash
that even more and that really made a big difference.
I don't really think of the completion of
a work at the start. I don't have a look in my head that I think that's how it
should be executed. But I have at the start a certain set of premises or
thoughts that kind of make me behave in a certain way with my painting.
It felt very extraordinary to paint here
to have a relationship with landscape that has gone through a lot of different
stages. I had a great time working outside here, I mean what an amazing location.
To be on the beach but have something really great to do is not so bad.