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Statement
I use specific experiences as inspiration for my paintings, working on
sketches from both memory and photography. What really interests me is the
experience of certain places in the landscape, the meeting between man and
surroundings, the mutual changing influence between them and the sense of
being on the threshold of the unknown. The overwhelming presence of
natural elements, that sometimes seems unfamiliar in the modern age,
inspires me.
The starting point or idea for a painting may be a need for protection and
shelter through which there is the possibility for a sense of intimacy
with nature. Or it may be about looking: when gazing across a landscape,
from the sea, for instance in a boat, there is a sense of being exposed to
the landscape, almost seen by it. Looking at things in the distance,
passing them and never able to touch and investigate them properly, an
open sensation of interpretation appears. Things come closer even though
they are far away; especially if the weather is quiet and there are long
intervals of motionless state. The landscape becomes an arena for images;
forgotten memories and their associations reappear.
The various experiences of being on a voyage in a sailing boat are the
subject of my recent works. The way of looking at the passing landscape
and of returning to the cabin appears in a series of semi-abstract
paintings. Curiosity and longing for excitement meet the need for shelter:
the cabin as a shadow place of calm, the cladding of wood, where
experiences are contemplated near the stove and in the bunk. Downstairs
the cabin’s dark intimacy provides a relief from the immensity outside
even while in the mind this immensity becomes absorbed within it.
The building of boats interests me and as I have grown up in a shipyard I
have often followed the stages of a boat’s construction from the shell
of a hull to its launch from the shipyard on its maiden voyage. Creating
and changing nature’s materials seems magical to me. The way in which
wood is changed by human hand into a built structure and sails back into
nature, where it came from.
Places that are rich in elemental materials like water, wood, fire make me
think of different kinds of paint and ways of treating the paint. Thick
layers, thin layers, matte and glossy surfaces, smooth or rough brush
strokes, vibrant or toned down colours. If the materials are transformed
and do not appear raw any longer I still find them interesting; as long as
there exists a thread to nature. Mathilde Jensen
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