Mellby – how important is the artistic freedom?

„One Year – One Island“ – week 13

In mid-January my project reached Mellby, a village between Gräsgård and Hulterstad. For those of you who don’t live in Sweden: many places in Sweden have this name, it is made up of mellan (=in between or middle) and by (=village). I think there are several places on Öland called Mellby. Beside a dirtroad in the village I found a small overgrown garden with a red wooden house and a smaller building made of limestone. The sunlight, that had pushed through the clouds, shone on the sand-colored building. An old spade was leaning against the wall. I liked the motif, but I wasn’t sure whether I was allowed to walk on the property. It looked deserted, and there wasn’t a car in sight, but that could be deceptive. An old person who hardly ever leaves the house could live here (although there were none of the typical metal ramps at the entrance) or it could belong to a so-called „Summer-Ölander“, i.e. Swedes who have a holiday home on Öland and spend most of their time there during the summer. While looking around, I had passed a cowshed in which the farmer was mucking out with a kind of mini tractor. I went back and asked him if anyone lived in the house and explained that I wanted to paint it, but didn’t want to scare anyone to death when I moved around in the garden. His farmhand also came over and they explained to me that it belonged to a doctor couple who wanted to fix it up. They weren’t really around at this time of year.

Because I couldn’t stop my car on the narrow road without getting in someone’s way, I parked on the garden driveway and withit created a wonderful, wind-protected seat for myself in the trunk.

Sketching took a little longer (than with wide landscape pictures) because the proportions of the individual buildings, the fence and the trees had to be right in relation to each other. Then I started with the remaining green of the overgrown wall and tree to the left of the gable of the house and the tree stump that protrudes so prominently in the middle of the picture. A very large area of the picture consists of shaggy long grass and the ubiquitous green climbing plant. These provided the dark frame for the light-lit limestone shed. At least that’s how I laid out the picture. But at the end of the day I was really unhappy with the result. Frustrated I closed the paperpad and drove home.

I had already arranged to paint with my colleague Anne Ørvad Andersson. She mostly paints watercolors and has a much more relaxed style. I wanted to look over her shoulder and have her show me how she paints large, smooth, colored areas that I just can’t manage. I took the unsuccessful picture from Mellby with me that morning. I really appreciate Anne for her clear and direct manner and I asked her to tell me what she thought of the picture. I could see for myself that the picture had lost all its lightness: the dark undergrowth in the foreground overwhelmed the rest and the picture seemed restless when it should have radiated calm.

„What is the story, the message of the picture? What are you trying to say with it?“ was the first thing she asked. I explained that I had chosen the motif because it was representative of all the many old, empty houses on Öland, the summer houses that were only brought to life for a few weeks a year. Often the grass was waist-high and the facades of the outbuildings suffered because the owners did not want to give up their valuable vacation weeks for renovations and gardening. And because the light on the limestone building was so beautiful and the green provided the dark frame for it.

And Anne analyzed the problems immediately:
„Well, I would have left out the fence in the foreground. It stopps the viewer’s gaze. Maybe I would have just left the fence post, because it would have led the viewer’s gaze into the picture, but that way the eyes get stuck on the fence. Then I would have narrowed the picture section on the left,“ said Anne and held an angled piece of cardboard in front of the left edge of the painting.

„Something like that.“ – I replied that I also liked the light in the leaves of the climbing plant that you could see on the left.

„But actually it just distracts from the main theme, the light on the limestone barn. It’s like competition to it.“ – Hmm. She was right.

„And what is that there anyway? So this tree stump? I would have left it out completely. It looks kind of strange.” “Yeah, I thought so too. But it was there after all and was part of it.”

“Well. That’s just artistic freedom, leaving out such disturbing elements. Don´t you think so?” Well – I’ll come back to that.

”And this little part of the house here…”, she pointed to the window in the red facade on the left, “…I would put a shadow on it, it has to be darker, the red is too present.”

“Yes, I wanted to do that,” and I had actually seen it myself. “But what do I do with the green mess down there? It overwhelms the whole picture.” I pointed on the grass behind the fence.

“Well….” Anne thought about it and I knew myself that there wasn’t much that could be saved. That’s not so easy with watercolor. I wouldn’t be able to lift the color off the paper, it would suffer. I had painted too many layers of pigment on top of each other.
„Here in the light, in front of the shed, you did the grass well. It’s airy there.“

Afterwards, Anne felt guilty and apologized for being so forward. But I think it’s wonderful that she says what she thinks. That’s exactly why I like her so much.

So here is the picture as it looked when I brought it to Anne and below the picture that I then digitally altered exactly as she suggested. I did this so that you can have a direct comparison, because of course it changes the composition of the picture enormously. And it is actually calmer straight away.

The version Anne saw (above) vs. the digital changed version as Anne would have done it (below)

But of course I can’t do that in my original painting, so I did what I could. Before:

Finished version (above): I have toned doen the fence, lightend upp the gras behind the fence, more shadow on the red house and the gable of the limestone building. More wasn´t possible without destroying the painting. I am saticfied with those changes.