A Place for Painting

Andreas Siqueland

My practice as a painter deals with notions of repetition, displacement and reenactment, often in relationship to nature. From 2009 to 2013 I was enrolled in the Norwegian Artistic Research Programme at the Academy of Fine Arts in Oslo. Through the fellowship I wanted to learn more about the particular circumstances that influence the decision-making taking place on the canvas. I decided to go on a search for A Place for Painting. For many years I used photographs as a way to remember landscapes. I would use them to go on extended journeys in painting. With the advent of the digital age, the time between taking and developing and distributing images collapsed. At the same time, I saw my paintings gradually shifted in character. It felt as if there was lack of presence in the brushstrokes. I associated this with a dependency on the photographic medium as a model and source material for new painting. Photography seemed to disconnect me from observing what was actually happening on the canvas and how this was related to the outside. To make my experiences visible, I needed a more direct translation of the world. I imagined a search for a place for painting to rediscover the connection painting has to its surroundings. This led to a series of journeys to see how changes in geographical location would influence my work. As part of the investigation, I returned to the tradition of plein air painting. For me, this felt like the most direct way in which I could study how painting interacts with a physical place, while also addressing the subject of place in painting. Plein air painting necessitated working outside the architectural constraints of the studio. The variables of the outdoors raised fundamental questions about color, light, composition and the act of painting itself. I began experimenting with different studio models that I hoped could open up new relationships to nature and new modes of production. To further explore this repositioning and the interactive relationship that resulted, I decided to build a mobile outdoor studio using my own loft studio in Oslo as a model. The result was Winterstudio. This essay gives an account of the research and thinking that informed the building of this structure, the experience of working within it at two different locations and its subsequent influence on my work in the studio in Oslo. The focus is on a contemporary painting practice, but should be relevant to anyone interested in exploring the conditions and context of artistic production today.

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My practice as a painter deals with notions of repetition, displacement and reenactment, often in relationship to nature. From 2009 to 2013 I was enrolled in the Norwegian Artistic Research Programme at the Academy of Fine Arts in Oslo. Through the fellowship I wanted to learn more about the particular circumstances that influence the decision-making taking place on the canvas. I decided to go on a search for A Place for Painting. For many years I used photographs as a way to remember landscapes. I would use them to go on extended journeys in painting. With the advent of the digital age, the time between taking and developing and distributing images collapsed. At the same time, I saw my paintings gradually shifted in character. It felt as if there was lack of presence in the brushstrokes. I associated this with a dependency on the photographic medium as a model and source material for new painting. Photography seemed to disconnect me from observing what was actually happening on the canvas and how this was related to the outside. To make my experiences visible, I needed a more direct translation of the world. I imagined a search for a place for painting to rediscover the connection painting has to its surroundings. This led to a series of journeys to see how changes in geographical location would influence my work. As part of the investigation, I returned to the tradition of plein air painting. For me, this felt like the most direct way in which I could study how painting interacts with a physical place, while also addressing the subject of place in painting. Plein air painting necessitated working outside the architectural constraints of the studio. The variables of the outdoors raised fundamental questions about color, light, composition and the act of painting itself. I began experimenting with different studio models that I hoped could open up new relationships to nature and new modes of production. To further explore this repositioning and the interactive relationship that resulted, I decided to build a mobile outdoor studio using my own loft studio in Oslo as a model. The result was Winterstudio. This essay gives an account of the research and thinking that informed the building of this structure, the experience of working within it at two different locations and its subsequent influence on my work in the studio in Oslo. The focus is on a contemporary painting practice, but should be relevant to anyone interested in exploring the conditions and context of artistic production today.
Andreas Siqueland - A Place for Painting - 2016
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Photo: Andreas Siqueland

Driftwood Studio, Fogo Island, 2010

Fogo Island

IIn October of 2010, I was invited to Fogo Island, Newfoundland for a two-week “trial residency” in Long Studio, one of four new studios designed by the Canadian architect Todd Saunders. The building is a dominant feature in the otherwise subtle landscape of spray-washed shorelines and mountainous flora. It resembles a cross between a cabin by the sea and a spaceship and plays on the local history of constructing moveable houses on stilts. Reflecting on and reacting to this quite imposing structure, I decided to build my own temporary studio – a small shed-like structure that could barely fit one person. The intimate and fragile studio construction made from materials shaped by the ocean functioned as a space to think about the relation to the great open space surrounding it. Driftwood Studio was really not suitable for painting; it felt more like climbing into a painting. I took this experience of being surrounded by worn out and weather beaten material with me when working on new paintings, which had a much more transparent airy loose feel to them.

Photo: Vegard Kleven

There she blows, oil on board, 18,8 × 15 cm, 2010

Photo: Vegard Kleven

Breaker, oil on board, 18,3 × 18,6 cm, 2010

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Fogo Island