PAINTINGS 2025

W I N D O W S OFE T E R N I T Y

five paintings, 2025, acrylic gouache on canvas, 120x90 cm.

With these paintings I made an experiment with acrylic gouache directly on beige cotton sheet that I glued with wheat starch glue to a thin fiber sheet. I learned this technique at a book binding course, but I had to make several versions before I got a surface that would work for a painting. To protect the edges of the paintings, and to hold the composition together, I sewed a checkered fabric ribbon all around. When I worked with the sketches, I put myself in a deep concentration mode, not allowing my rational thoughts to intervene. The series is an answer to a sense of deep longing, reaching out through the borders of our conscious reality and materiality.

W A L L P A P E R S F O R I M A G I N A R Y B O R D E R S

2025, oil on canvas, 70x70 cm.

The series consists of eight paintings. I have been studying a concept in geometry called tessellation. This is a repeating pattern where shapes fit next to each other without any empty space or overlap. They are used in mathematics and in the decoration of floors and walls in buildings, and are also applied in social planning, for example when making the pattern of public transport networks. During a period when the fear of war and political chaos only grew, I had two similar dreams. In the dream, I walked across a vast grassy landscape, and the field was made up of tessellations - irregular graphic patterns. I walked along the edges and kept reciting mantras or prayers, because in this way I wanted to keep the world intact. After the dreams, I made a series of eight paintings with my own tessellations in the background and visual mantras on top.

C O U N T TO O N E / C O U N T T O T W O / C O U N T T O T H R E E

3 drawings, 2025, color pencil and charcoal on paper, 48 x 32 cm.

On a conceptual level, my art is symbolic. I often combine simple forms and symbols to promote exchange of associations concerning energy transformations, which are difficult to describe in words. In these three drawings I have used the shape of a balloon as a metaphor for the self, combined with symbols for eternity and a sense of belonging to a bigger context than the one that is visible to our eyes. The series depicts different aspects of relations: between humans or between humans and the holiness of the cosmos or God.

Prints awailable for the drawing Count to Two, printed on Matt Fine Art Paper Hahnemuhle Albrect Durer 210 gsm 50% Cotton 50% Cellulose Mould made white. Ink: Epson Ultra Chrome.

© Gun Holmström 2025