Tove Hellerud

The layers of paint are laid onto the canvas with the lightest touches, while the subject matter in the large oil paintings is ephemeral and mysterious. Images of violence appear occasionally, intermingled with clouds of emotion and pierced hearts. Humanity finds a fractured reflection of itself within the work. The method is contemplative, meditative, and indulgent.. This is a mysterious form of painting, in which art seems to return to its ancestral shamanic role. The particular inspiration to his work. They represent an emotion or a state of mind. And the in the colors inform Hellerud palette, particularly in the form of languid, swirling blooms of paint sprawling from one side of the canvas to the next. flow, ramble and rage with an impressive consistency—yet it never gets beyond itself. Disassociated from any corresponding sensation, experience, or thing,her metaphoric abstractions glisten over whatever surface they happen to occupy. Demanding that viewers leave at the door notions of what painting should be, Hellerud allows them the freedom to let feelings be the guide. "The paintings develop from an exploration of mark making. I do notbegin with any imagery in mind. I work intuitively to develop acomposition. Each layer is made by working with, or against, the last.One compositional approach that I have been exploring is composed ofshort, choppy, vertical or horizontal marks, which suggest an agitatedground that strives to contain a structure attempting to emerge from aflurry of brushstrokes. Another approach is built from long,interwoven marks, rising and falling across the canvas, intertwiningwith one another in a ropy physicality of paint. Ultimately, the workevolves from the act of seeking, with the knowledge that thepossibility of editing always exists."