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There is something so fascinating about Venetian masks. There are many ways they can be decorated. One of the more spectacular ones are those made with feathers around the half mask, and in this case the half mask sits on a whole mask. Sometimes these feathers are just little chiq tufts on one side, and sometimes they look like a full hair from the glittering 1980s, like the 'do' in Solitaire.

In my previous Venetian Masks and Games paintings, the Backgammon and the Chess, there is interaction between figures playing, and they tell a story of that interaction. And they interact with the viewer, too. With Solitaire, I have done something slightly different. The obvious thing is that the game of cards is a solitaire, and also that the mask is solitary.

What story does the painting tell you? Write a comment and share it. As with the other masks and games paintings, I will collect them. Mostly, I will delight in getting to know what you see in the painting, as it may not be the same story as I had in mind.

Click the link to see a larger version of the pastel painting Solitaire -- Venetian Mask.

This was great fun to paint, and it is part of a series of game paintings I'm involved in. I've completed Chess, and now Backgammon. I briefly considered checkers, but no, the checkerboard in perspective... well, I had had enough of it for a good while. Now I know that a backgammon board is much more difficult, with the long tongue pattern in perspective... Live, try things out, and learn, take on challenges, right! It keeps life interesting.

The Venetian masks are based on typical template masks, with my own decoration on them. In this painting, I really focus on creating shimmering glowing colour. Pastels are a very versatile medium, which allows the artist to layer even complementary colours without creating the proverbial "mud". Not that there exists such a thing, "mud" are lovely neutral colours, which do a great job in the right place in the right painting.

This is not such a painting.

This is a colour feast, with exuberant singing high-chroma pigments. However, no major mass in the paintings is un-mixed colour. Every colours is created by layering strokes, laying them down overlapping and adjacent, weaving the pigments as if they were photons of light. (By the way, is light a particle waiving, or a wave being particular?) In fact, there are greys in the painting, particularly (!) in the "skin tone" of the mask in profile, but they are optical greys, created by the prismatic colours I always use.

Two close-up details show the weaving of pigment. The camera can't capture how smoothly the colours transition into each other (as a colletor and friend said, "your paintings are beautiful online, but a thousand times more beautiful in real life"). But this inability in the camera reveals the strokes, and that is very usable when I want to show that aspect.

The grey, white-in-shadow, of the profile mask is made out of many colours, including warm peaches.

Above is a close-up detail of the corner of the fan. The warm reds are tempered by strokes of olive green, and so is the intense cobalt blues of the hat, which also got some violets. There is a little bit of background showing at bottom left corner, and the yellows are tempered by pinks and violets.

As with Chess, there is a story in the painting, a hidden-in-plain-sight one. With Chess, I asked the readers to share their interpretations in the blog post "Do we communicate, you and I?", and I'd love for you to do it here too!

Both paintings are going to be exhibited soon, on the 18th of May, and I will print ut the stories for the audience to read.

I'll reveal one thing about the Backgammon: The actual game on the board. It sure looks like red (the coquettishly smiling blue lady) has no reason to look so happy this close to the end of the game. While I reasearched backgammon rules (I did learn it a few decades ago, but have not played much), I came across a text by Ed Collins called A Sweet (and Miraculous) Backgammon Win (actually, they are two such wins). In this very situation I have painted, he threw a double one, and eventually managed to win the whole game, against the odds. I found this so charming I used that point in the game for my pastel painting.

Click on the link to see a larger version of Backgammon.

Mystery, the fantastic, ambiguousity. What does inspire your thoughts and feelings?

Art needs to evoke a response, and play a part in a dialogue. It is about communication. Painting is so often a lonely work (maybe necessarily so), and the opportunities to meet the viewers are few. To me, my painting tends to feel like a monologue except during exhibitions, while what I aim for is the dialogue, the touching of minds and emotions. The internet opens up good opportunities to meet, thankfully.

"Chess", (see larger Chess in this link) is an unusal painting from my mind and hand. It is mostly pure fantasy, "a pigment of my imagination". The image just popped into my mind. You know they say “creativity is 1% inspiration, and 99% transpiration? It felt like an “elementary particle” – an “ideon” – passed through my brain and left a perceptible trace in the form of an image. That was the inspiration part.  All I knew was that my inner vision said there should be masks of the Venetian type playing chess, and the placement of the masks and the angle of the chessboard. The rest was pure hard work.

What does it mean, what is it about? This people ask me. What can I say, as every one of you will create a story of your own in your mind, it will be symbolic for you in your special way.

I would be delighted if you would like to share your interpretation here in this blog. (You are welcome to write in Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, French, German, as well as in English.) Your stories are part of the artwork -- of the dialogue between the artist and the viewers. I want to make this an artproject together with you, and print out the stories and show them with the painting next time I exhibit it. (Please indicate if you want to be anonymous, or want to share your story on the blog only.)

So let's talk, let's have a dialogue!