EVA WILLER-ANDERSEN: Butterfly Effect

About

A painting may take weeks, months or even years, but in the end it has to appear as something that happened all at once. I believe that each painting is its own journey, it emerges out of process and consciousness. Inspiration may come from sources as disparate as: a newspaper photo, passages of music, seasonal phenomena, a memory, conversations, a sunrise skyscape, studio paraphernalia or another painting, it all depends on the ‘plat du jour’.  Along with this go formal concerns about colour spaces, light, translucency, the push and pull of the picture plane, mark making and scale.  I seek to capture a spark in all this, often a chance encounter in the debris. I have been painting off and on for 50 years, a background in sculpture has given me an interest in the nature of materials. In 2002, quite unexpectedly, I became disabled with a degenerative neuromuscular condition, I had to change my life, leave a big warehouse studio, and stop large scale work. I now work on a smaller scale at home, my studio overlooks a long cultivated garden. The painting has become more intimate, like handwriting, with the nuances embedded in a handwritten letter. I don’t quantify my approach to painting too much, it remains open, and I follow its changes: it is a journal, a daily meditation, a place to create harmony between opposing forces. The Chinese say: when you draw a tree you must feel yourself growing with it.

Eva Willer-Andersen, 2022