This is a sculptural painting, where the rawness of nature meets the interior. This painting is on handmade paper but has the look of a textile. Ann-Helen’s paintings contain elements of real as well as invented nature, in the sense that sand, stone and plant life are incorporated as well as painted. She also incorporates collage and print. This painting has been float-mounted and framed with UV/low reflective glass.
| Medium | Oil and mixed media on handmade paper |
|---|---|
| Year | 2018 |
| Original / Edition | original work of art |
| Size | 77 x 87 cm |
The natural and nostalgic are combined in Ann-Helen’s paintings. She lives on a small island in the Baltic (one of the hundreds of islands in the Stockholm archipelago) for a large part of the year. Growing up in Northern Sweden surrounded by forests, mountains and lakes, together with memories of the magic and mystery of Nordic folk stories, had a profound impact on Ann-Helen. Emerged in this remote environment, where the rawness of nature is the dominant force, she distills images from countless observations to arrive at brief glimpses or moments of truth – much like “seeing the world in a grain of sand” or indeed like a line of poetry that tells a whole story.
Ann-Helen was educated in Sweden, has a Fine Art BA Hons from Reading University and an MA in Printmaking from The Slade School of Art UCL (1981). She won the Stowells Trophy at the Royal Academy in 1979 and has taken part in New Contemporaries at the ICA, showing also at the Serpentine Gallery and the Camden Art Centre and amongst others across the UK, USA and Sweden.
