Berit Førland

Similitude; as in a person resembling another, resembling something – anything. After a long summer and some procrastination a new series on canvas, ( 80 x 110 cm ) is finally seeing the light of day.

This new work in the Charm series venture a little astray – it should be seen as an abstraction and an examination of the Charm idea. Balloon Charms also examine color and texture.

I have created a portfolio of words which both have been descriptive and fascilitating for my artistic process. Entities/charms/concoction – I have worked with concocted entities, because I wanted to explore the idea of constructing things with distinct and independent existence and then add an element of randomness. In Owl Charm as well as Monkey […]

My love affair with words like entities, scraps, and concoction has the same nature as any other love affair with ups and downs, but also blissful redemption when the process takes you to a richer and deeper place. The idea and addition of charms to my work process has created a fun and fulfilling place […]

This post features the last piece in my Landscape with Charms series, as well as the first piece within the title Landscape with Scraps. My idea was to take the unwanted, the leftovers, that which is left behind and make it my new entities. I have placed these new entities in a floating patchwork landscape, […]

In these days I often find myself venturing back to old ideas, rethinking, reshaping and reusing them in my current work. This is a new and very fulfilling situation for me. When I first reconnected with my art, I experienced myself in a process which only moved forward, now I experience the ability to venture […]

I continue to develop my newly found interest for charms. My entities have progressed into charms. This change was born out of a desire to add mythical value to the entities.

In this piece charms are adorning the sides of a bright orange trunk structure which is surrounded by darkness. I wanted this work to depict a sentiment of ease in they way we conquer our biggest fears and challenges. The sentiment that a life challenge need not to be seen as a quest for survival […]

In this piece I have scattered a random variety of elements from my past productions onto a sheet of paper. My object was to challenge the limit for achieving order within chaos.

In this piece I have experimented with patterns and fiber entities. I wanted to maintain the idea of an insect that also can be seen as a flower.

In this piece I transformed the perception of an insect into the perception of a white flower.

In this piece I concoct and disrupt by dividing patterns and fiber structures. The insects are dissected into small earthy entities. This piece frames the order that arises anew, as a consequence of disruption and division.

In these two pieces bugs venture in or out of landscapes formed by fragmented patterns. I wanted to create a “concocted sentiment” which would offer feelings of disruption and redemption.

Acrylics and fiber on paper 33x24cm

Butterfly Islands, acrylics and fiber on canvas 60×80 cm

This disrupted kaleidoscope with trees and flying ladybugs can be seen as a visual sentiment – depicting hope and emotional redemption.

Bees in a kaleidoscopic landscape. They are useful and busy – but also a frightening nuisance.

One green and one yellowish eye, two pink nostrils, a red mouth and two insects as part of the eyes – an identity within a mask.

This small experimental work is an important piece in my pursuit of a technique to express sensations. The three-dimensional flowers and the pink stem are entities randomly placed in an orderly patterned landscape. They disrupt the landscape and demand attention.

In these small works with disrupted patterns I have added fringes, to transform pieces of painted paper into sensual objects.

Carpet is the working title for a new body of work.

Layers which start out neat and orderly with a simple understandable pattern gradually become more fragmented. In the end, redemption is offered only through one holding on to that which lies in between the fragments.

Curiosity/fear/fascination, sentiments which we experience in glimpses, understand in glimpses. My titles and works wander around the cracks and lines in between, catching glimpses and giving them a visual appearance in which they can be glimpsed yet again.

The past couple of days I ventured down a path which led back to a previous idea and a previous title : Embracing – embracing the cracks and the lines in between.

One tattered bird and one who appears as a blue mass integrated in the background behind floating trees. In both pieces I work with the softness and transparency given by the fiber structures.

A week spent with paper, acrylics, fiber and birds both confined and free. We desire freedom but need some element of confinement to reach fulfillment and satisfaction in that quest.

Birds have been a recurring theme in my past productions. They represent freedom and a longing for the unseen and unknown. In these two small works on paper I have returned to a place in my younger pure self in order to explore the possibilities this theme could have for me today.

In this piece I have returned to the idea of concocting various elements, with the intention of creating an identity formed randomly by raw and and transparent sensations. A round facial shape onto which human attributes are attached contains the idea of how identity may be formed.

I continue to explore my desire to infiltrate sentiments in “the cracks of the mind” within the abstractions of a face.

This week I have taken Unmasked into a bigger format ( 80X100cm ) and onto canvas. The insects have become more fragmented — on one side entangled in, and on the other side shaping the contours of a face. Unmasked, acrylics and fiber on canvas, 80x100cm

This week, several pieces of Unmasked have ended their existence in the wastebasket. I have preserved the existence of one. The pieces which I let go are often the ones which lead the road and show where to go next.

In these works, the idea of Unmasked has been disrupted and brought back to a continuity and physical presence on paper.

My vision is that these initial pieces from unmasked represent the beginning of a new large body of work. I am working to find a path which enables a way to express hidden and forbidden sentiments. My use of insects ( silk fiber entities ) was born from a desire to give a visual identity […]

I am interested in what is between the lines and inside the cracks –everything which only can be described as a visual sentiment. Unmasked, acrylics and fiber on paper

This past week has been very contemplative. I have chosen to post two very small works which suggest the direction and development for my work process. Acrylic and fiber on paper, each 30x20cm

These pieces deal with framing and the contents which are framed.

In this piece the silk entities have moved into the background. The view is from the inside and out. The loosely painted silk entities become the wilderness seen through an obstructed frame.

I have spent the past week working on paper – always a good path when one feels indecisive about which direction to take in the middle of a multitude of crossroads.

In this piece I wanted the entities to form an organic mass, existing despite the differences in the joined elements. Next week I plan to work on paper, as a preparation for a series of larger scale canvas works.

This is a lighthearted piece, which expresses a sense of continuity – a resting point before disruption sets in and demands change.

Dissociation is the act of separating complex object into parts, in direct opposition to my earlier concoction of entities. The shelter in the top left of the fractured landscape offers relief and continuity.

Concoction and entities have by now become an established part of my works´ DNA, and the connotations these words have for me personally have become important tools in my work process. I now want to bring a dimension of uncertainty and disruption into the process. To help me achieve that, I have chosen ( or […]

The process in this piece has been complex and long, it became chaotic several times and almost never reached clarification.

The process of venturing into acrylics on canvas is exciting and fun. This piece is playful in colors as well as composition and texture.

I chose a small format, 40×40 cm, as the starting point for my work with acrylics on canvas. This little painting represents a natural and fluid continuity from my works on paper. In the coming weeks, I will be venturing into more works on canvas, a familiar but widened work process.

As I experience artwork as a process, it occurred to me that it would be of interest to me and those who take interest in my work to narrate the correlation between work titles and work process. My process can be seen as a pursuit of the unknown or unpredictable, with some level of control […]