Do you paint figuratively or abstractly?

... The question holds for me an eternal dilemma.
As a trained graphic artist and illustrator, I am used to paint something recognizable. But it is also important that my images contain shapes and colors which give my audience the freedom to mirror their own experiences and draw their own conclusions.
Therefore, I usually answer: I paint both-and!

For me, the colors are crucial to the expression of the image!

I am convinced that colors contain energies that affect us, and it is my experience that the colors when I paint often choose me over the other way around. It can also sometimes feel as if it is more my motor skills than my will that leads the brush. But in the end, of course, it's my gut feeling and my knowledge of colors, composition, etc. that tells me if a picture is finished.

I paint with acrylic paints and mostly on canvas because the canvas and the quick-drying colors appeal to my way of painting. Painting is a bit like writing: You have a 'stroke' the same way you have a handwriting - which then has to be developed and refined.

In addition to the youth education at the School of Arts and Crafts in Copenhagen (Denmark's Design School), I am also a trained journalist from the Danish School of Media and Journalism DMJX. For more than 30 years, I have worked full time as a journalist, and through all these years art and painting were almost on standby. But today I have chose a new focus and a new path: Journalism is on hold, while painting has become my immersive and energizing way of life.

Vær den første til at se Maiken Buchwald's nye kunstværker