Series: Pacific

In the beginning there were small drawings in the sketchbook that I created in the summer of 2008 at a cape north of San Francisco. I drew the sketches in pencil in two hours around the local lighthouse. The sea surface there had many fascinating forms for me. I was thrilled and awed by the power and rhythm of the surf in the bay, but I did not know how to capture this surf in drawing. I made the first sketches on the spot like very fast linear records in pencil. Only later, I think, did something get into the drawings which I tried to make a few days after. It was not the wild surf, though; so either it is not possible or I cannot do it. The subsequent colour drawings in brush and red ink on A3 format were based on some sketch records, but I worked more slowly and I composed the linear records into a surface. Around them I then created something like contour lines, so the original subtle records of the waves began to become more powerful, gaining the strength of the swirling ocean.

My plan was to create red and white paintings based on the red ink sketches. However, when I already had the first canvas ready, I changed my plan. Instead of red, I decided to paint the lines with white paint squeezed directly from the tube. White on white, experimenting with surface and mass qualities of oil and acrylic paints. Only later did I return in several paintings to the original intent of red lines, both carved and painted in glazing brush paint.

2008