BEAUTY: Drawing--Per Adolfsen

The light, sketchy, bucolic images of Danish artist Per Adolfsen feel so right for summer...and they are all created with colored pencils utilizing a hatching and cross-hatching technique. Beautiful.

https://www.instagram.com/peradolfsen_artist/
https://www.artsy.net/artist/per-adolfsen

BEAUTY: Painting--Benny Dröscher

What an extraordinary view Danish artist Benny Dröscher presents to us in his paintings--we lie under a slender birch or elm, looking up the long trunk to the sky. But the view is peppered, like a dream, with floating mushrooms, branches, feathers, lines, and random color patches.

https://www.instagram.com/benny_droscher/

BEAUTY: Photography--Peter Ravn

The crawling men in the photographic work of painter Peter Ravn capture the mood...

Artist Statement:
"My work is about the basic existential conditions of relations, interactions and the relationship between the individual and authorities and the norms of society. About the conversation a person has with him or herself throughout life. Nobody hears this silent conversation because it takes place within us. To get closer to this, I eliminate the exterior just as ‎I try to avoid contemporary identity markers in my figures.

I am preoccupied with the human ability, or should we call it disposition, to rationalise after the event and attribute a deeper meaning to our often rather arbitrary life choices. Doubt and regret in a grown and dignified person’s life is almost taboo, to stop and confront this takes courage and has consequences. On the other hand, doubt about the doubt is gnawing in the background if you continue as if nothing had happened, and often this course of action comes at a great price. This conundrum is present in the psychology of the individual and its existential search, but also in the western way of thinking, and in our streamlined societies where we are rarely presented with alternatives to conformity."

Indeed, Ravn's suited men seem to be victims of conformity, crawling from the weight of it all, hoping to slip away unnoticed from its despotic eye.

https://peterravn.com/

"Camera's Rolling" by Agnes Obel

From her new album "Myopia," here is Agnes Obel's delicate, haunting, enigmatic song "Camera's Rolling."

The script is burning
On heavy fuel
No time to lose
What will you do?

Camera’s rolling
What will you do?
What will you do?
that you can’t undo?

The gun is loaded
What will you do?
Cruel gifted fool
What will you do?

https://www.agnesobel.com/

"Island of Doom" by Agnes Obel

And now it's time for you to hear "Island of Doom" by Agnes Obel from her upcoming release "Myopia" out on February 21, 2020. She says, "The song is made up of pitched-down piano and cello pizzicato and vocals, all choirs are pitched down and up...In my experience when someone close to you dies it is simply impossible to comprehend that you can’t ever talk to them or reach them somehow ever again."

Destiny made her way and found you in a room,
They told me, they told me:
To undo the rule of mind and body,
And nature laughed away as their voices grew.
They told me, They told me:
“Clean out the room and bury the body”.

But I know you with a heartbeat
So how does the night feel?
When the lights fade out
When the lights fade out
When the lights fade out
But now it’s gone, it’s gone, it’s gone.
But now it’s gone, it’s gone, it’s gone.

“Haven’t walked for days though I wanted to”
You told me, you told me:
“For with every move the feeling follows”,
“In nature’s empty face, I am of little use”,
You told me, you told me:
“I’m just another fool for the earth to swallow”.

But the road through mines will lead you back,
and I will be with you
Before the road of your mind will eat you up,
on your island of doom
Where the voices have all gathered up,
to a choir of fools
But I know my mind will reach you there,
and I will be with you.

Oh I know you with a heartbeat
So how does the night feel?
When the lights fade out
When the lights fade out
When the lights fade out
And now it’s gone, it’s gone, it’s gone
And now it’s gone, it’s gone, it’s gone.
Why you wake me up today?
Why you wake me up today?
One two three four five.

https://www.agnesobel.com/

BEAUTY: Painting--Per Anders

Now that spring is finally here in Northern California, I'm going to mark it by sharing Per Anders' daisies which have a nearly-retro feeling to them. I grew up in an era where prints like these would be on a wallpaper in a friend's parent's bathroom...

As we saw in a previous post about Anders here, these works are quite large which makes me love them even more.

http://peranders.dk/

BEAUTY: Painting--Per Anders

I seem to be on an abstract kick these days. I love the color and free yet blocky brushwork of Danish artist Per Anders. Yet despite the initial abstract appearance, closer inspection reveals that these works are landscapes (a village with rooftops or a small bay with sailboats) or still life images (fruits at an outdoor market).

What is not apparent from the images above is that these are impressively large-scale works.

http://peranders.dk/