Kicki Edgren Explaining art on Trendyartideas

Kicki Edgren – Explaining my art

Kicki Edgren, born 1972, based in Gothenburg, Sweden, has had about 25 solo art exhibitions in Sweden, and recently her paintings has been exhibited in Galleries in Europe – Monaco, Spain and Italy and Canada. Kicki Edgren has attended several art educations, including a master’s degree from HDKValand – Academy of Art and Design.

She gets her inspiration from human emotions and situations expressed in bodies and faces as well as patterns, abstract art and street art.

In addition to her artistry, she is also a multi-prized designer for her graphic design, pattern design and product design.

Figurative abstract art paintings

Kicki Edgren – Explaining my art

How I learn

I have studied in some art schools, but for me it’s about life-long interest instudying how things look, how the light and shadow fall over a hand, the design of a packaging, the rhythm of a wallpaper pattern or the glitter in one’s eye. When knowing how things look, I can go forward by breaking it down, explore and exaggerate shapes and colours to express it in different ways.

My inspiration

I always want to express a certain feeling or a mood in my artworks and I do so by painting people. A story can be told through someone’s gaze, or posture. I might have a story in mind but it’s up to the viewer to interpret the image.
But my inspiration doesn’t only come from human emotions and situations expressed in bodies and faces, but also pattern design, expressionism, abstract art and street art. The soft, sweet and perfect doesn’t interest me, but instead vibrant colours, rough lines and dynamic contrasts to exaggerate expressions.

My challenges

There are mainly three things I always challenge when I paint.
1 Colour combinations, 2 contrasts and 3 the meeting between the flat and the 3-dimensional. I want the viewer to feel the depth of the motive, but still be reminded of the one-dimensional surface.
The fact that I am also a graphic designer and illustrator has driven me to let those worlds and challenges meet in a painting. I always want to create strong visual effects to enhance the story.

The chance

Lately, I have started to appreciate chance. Like when the paint flows uncontrollably over the painting and creates something new that I didn’t plan. I do not always dare to ”destroy”, because there is a great risk that it will go wrong, I am after all a perfectionist. But if I dare, a stronger relationship grows between me and the painting. Like a partnership, a collaboration, a give and take. But sometimes there is a war between us, I get angry, break up and paint it all over to start again. On the other hand – a new chance is there to surprise me, because the overpainted layer can contribute to the new artwork.