art

17
Feb
2017

They call this “art” and sell it

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Ylva Skarp “art” lightboxes by IKEA. Screendump from image at livethemma.ikea.se

IKEA just announced these lightboxes with “art” by Ylva Skarp on a foil attached to the lightboxes. Price SEK 1295/approximately USD 145. The product is called FLOALT. Ylva Skarp and her images are popular in certain interior design circles and you often find her images in featured interiors. 

Personally I don’t call this “art” or “calligraphy” which some do. Personally I would never pay SEK 1295 to IKEA for a lightbox with her images. Would you? I’ve always found her imagery overrated.

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Images and “art” by Karolina Palmer. Screenshot from Leva&Bo.

The above “art”-images are sold via Leva & Bo, a magazine from one of Swedens daily newspapers. They are posters and art-cards and even pillow-cases. They are created by Karolina Palmer. Apparently they are very popular? I fail to understand why… How can images like these be called “art”? They look like something your child (or your friends child) would have created. And mass-produced to sell via the magazine. I would never pay for them. Nor would I ever put them on my walls at home.

Of course taste differs between different people, but some things that are sold as art, really shouldn’t be called art…. In my opinion.

I actually love art and am a real image-nerd, but these ones? No, thanks.

Posted by nini in Art and Drawings, decoration, drawings, Thoughts, Various, 0 comments
15
Feb
2015

Bengt Elde, painter of pictures

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Bengt Elde. Picture from the internet.

Last week Bengt Elde, Swedish picture painter, passed away after some time with prostata cancer. No, I didn’t know him, but I’ve always loved his pictures (see gallery below).

His pictures are detailed, colorful, imaginative, full of fantasy and fun. Often flowers, views of Stockholm or the archipelago, summer or winter, and those recurring little critters…

I can watch his pictures over and over and over again and still find details in them that I didn’t see before. (As a child this was the kind of pictures that most awoke my imagination). His art is folksy and easy to love. His pictures have been made into table mats, coasters, trays, calendars, postcards… and pictures of course.  Not all that expensive to buy. There is a shop at Drottninggatan in Stockholm that sells a lot of his pictures and items. He also had a studio centrally in the southern part of Stockholm.

He was very creative.

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The shop at Drottningggatan, Stockholm. Image from the Internet.

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Bengt Elde with glasses with his “critters” on.

His “critters” that appear in several pictures and on his glasses above and as ceramic horse-like objects, I haven’t seen sold anywhere. I have seen pictures of them done in ceramics though.

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Elde critters. Image from the internet.

Below are some examples of his pictures that I found on the internet. Personally I only have saved pages from some of his yearly wall calendars. I guess the calendar for 2015 will be the last one unless his publisher continue to publish them.

If you click on an image, you will see them larger. If you reload the page the images will re-sort. The images are from various places on the internet and I’ve had no way to ask for permissions to publish them here. Just hoping that it is OK to do so.

Posted by nini in Art and Drawings, decoration, 2 comments
21
Aug
2014

A sculpture in Alby by Tarek Zaki

alby, sculpture, tarek zaki

Photo: ©nini.tjader.2014 by iPhone 5S

Every time I get off the bus from Tumba at Albyvägen to go to ICA MAXI for my weekly grocery shopping, I see this concrete sculpture in the grass, not far from the bus station. Love it. I’ve always been fascinated by this kind of sculpture with simple forms and expression. Have been intending to take a photo of it all summer and the other day I finally did. It looks like an extra little village beside the regular houses.

alby, sculpture, tarek zaki

Photo: ©nini.tjader.2014 by iPhone 5S

Looked for a plaque or something about it but couldn’t find any. So googled and found that the artist is Egyptian Tarek Zaki. Tarek Zaki was born in 1975 and lives and works in Cairo. The sculpture was inaugurated at the beginning of June 2014. It just sits there in the grass and is very anonymous. Will bring my regular camera and take more photos one of these days. Interestingly enough there is no graffiti on it, yet. I hope it will stay like that.

alby, sculpture, tarek zaki

Photo: ©nini.tjader.2014 by iPhone 5S

Posted by nini in Art and Drawings, 0 comments
30
May
2014

My fathers pictures

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Oskar when young.

My father, Oskar Edvard Tjäder, was born on July 28th, 1906 and died on January 3rd, 1984. My father created signboards that still today can be seen on some places around Stockholm. He was a sign-designer and a commercial artist.

He also painted in oil and aquarelles when he had the time and was also a quite good photographer.

Below are the pictures I have in my possession. Sometimes they are on the walls, sometimes in storage.

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Oskar, selfie, scetch. Year unknown.

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This one lives on the wall above the TV.  Oil, 45 x 64 cms, 1929. When I grew up it belonged to my grandmother and hung in her room. I got it after she passed away in 1960. I have always loved this painting. It could need some cleaning though…

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The cat “Pirre” is above my be in the bedroom. Done on black scrape-paper (white hard carton overdrawn with black) where every line is scraped out in white with a special pencil. 21 x 17 cms, 1940. My father taught me how to do this technique but I don’t really have the patience for it. I still have some of that particular scratch-paper though.

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The two pictures above are pencil drawings from 1944 of me as a child. 19 x 24 cms and 13 x 19 cms.

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Flowers. Oil, 60 x 45 cms, 1932. This one could need some cleaning too and some repairs on the backside of the frame.

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Aquarelle of Stigbergsgatan, Södermalm, Stockholm, Sweden in 1940, 28 x 37 cms..

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Aquarelle of “Spring at Stigbergsgatan”, 1928, 30 x 39 cms.

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Oskar in 1983. Photo: ©nini.tjader

I have some more of my fathers drawings stored somewhere, and at least one more scratch-drawing… Time has marked the materials, especially the paper in the drawings and the aquarelles. Thanks to Adobe Camera Raw and Adobe Photoshop CC , some of the yellowness of the pictures could be removed, but in reality they are much more yellow than above. I also used Adobe Photoshop perspective crop to straighten some of the pictures after taking the pictures. It is always hard to get photos of bigger pictures straight when shooting. I have changed the frame of two of the pictures because they broke but the rest are the original wooden frames, some gilded.

PS. How do you clean oil paintings?

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Posted by nini in Art and Drawings, drawings, 0 comments
24
Apr
2014

TBT – Things I used to do

(TBT = Throw Back Thursday)

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©nini.tjader.2014

The above is the kind of thing I used to do when sitting somewhere listening. It was my trick to keep awake when things were boring. In this case it got colorized later. Done when I was in the kibbutz ulpan at kibbutz Hagoshrim in 1965-66.

The below is a sketch from the teahouse Tetley in Kungsträdgården, Stockholm in 1960. Also the kind of thing I used to do. Being in Kungsträdgården at the teahouse, making sketches.

tehouse, tetley, kungsträdgården

Sketch by Nini 1960. ©nini.tjader

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Posted by nini in Art and Drawings, TBT, 0 comments
17
Apr
2014

TBT Nationalmuseum November 2011

TBT (Throw  Back Thursday) of a visit to the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm on November 5th 2011. I was there with friend Monica (who now lives in Umeå and is going through a very tough cancer treatment which so far has lasted a year – fingers crossed that it will go well in the end) to watch the most fantastic exhibition of Russian artists. We watched more than the Russian artists though. We actually went through most of the departments at Nationalmuseum including Swedish art and contemporary design items. The museum is now closed and emptied for renovation but they have exhibitions at the Cultural House (Kulturhuset) during the renovation period.

For some to me unknown reason I never got around to publish the pictures I took then.
So here we go. Click image to get a bigger version.

All photos are ©nini.tjader

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Posted by nini in Art and Drawings, TBT, 0 comments
19
Feb
2012

Subway art at Alby station

Alby subway wall decoration

Alby subway wall decoration

The subway in Stockholm (Sweden) is a really long art exhibition.

Every station has its’ own look and feel. Its’ own kind of art.

Now and then I pass the subway station at Alby (on the red line of the Stockholm subway).
The station is like a huge green cave. With cave-paintings on the walls.
Last time I passed I managed to take a picture of one of the decorations with my iPhone.
I plan to take more pictures on other parts of these walls the next time.
I love these decorations at the Alby station.

Posted by nini in Thoughts, Various, 0 comments