Camilla Eriksson

Born 1971 in Älmhult, Sweden

97-99 Art school Kristianstad

Exhibition:

April 2014    Kallerholm
April 2015    KSV
Mars 2016    KSV

I paint because there are emotions I need to share.

Strong emotions, both easy and hard. The paintings become their own stories to me. About me. And about things I have felt and experienced.

If one asks Camilla if she is going through an orange period at the moment or a blue or something else, she looks at you a little inquisitive. Then comes the smile that warms up more than a roaring fireplace and she says “nah, I have no “periods” like that, but sometimes I just HAVE to dive into the feeling of blue, or red or some other feeling. If those feelings that lead to certain colors come in periods… yes, perhaps…”

“I paint out of strictly egotistical reasons. And not just for the pleasure of watching my family tiptoe around all my painting stuff and the canvases I tape to the floor as well as the walls while I paint, but because I have feelings I need to express through the paint and the canvas.

In dialogue with the beholder the words also come and as a bonus I get, both during the process and when the painting is completed, access to other people’s thoughts, emotions and inner life. An amazing  journey.”

“And it becomes even more amazing as the painting finally hangs on the wall and I get to see the commitment and interest of perfect strangers in it. The very same painting can lead one person to a filthy factory window he can barely see out of and another to a landscape on Greenland. Wonderful dialogues and great meetings.”

“In the process of the creation of a painting I sometimes just sit and watch. And feel. For a looong time… And this is where a certain color suddenly and acutely become a NEED. I almost get obessed then and there, joining the paint in an almost trancelike journey across the canvas.

That might sound crazy, but that is how it is…”

“That other people take the time to stand and reflect over my paintings is an amazing feeling. I’ve wanted to be an artist for as long as I can remember… but finally reaching the point where I can call myself one feels big. Very big. It is really something I take very seriously.”

• Amazing, look at the proud penguins looking out over the ice. I wonder what they are thinking… And the little one at the edge. I wonder if he is afraid of anything…
• Penguins… No, to me they absolutely are Japanese Cranes. Solitarily powerful, still together in a decision of the future…
• Oh, to me they’re neither penguins nor birds, they are scouts from the beautiful African Massaipeople. They are trying to foresee their future, see what we in the “developed countries” are doing to the climate… And the little one there is a baby one, tired of everyone else being so serious, all he wants is to go home and play with his friends by the river…

Now you understand why I leave the right to interpret to the beholder. Some of the new owners of my paintings invite me over the show me the painting in its new home, a wonderful gesture. Then I get new stories and new perspectives on my work.”