Emeli Theanders
Emeli Theanders paintings seek to find “spaces inbetween” or perhaps a balance between opposite poles; be it light/dark, cute/menacing, rough strokes/fine details. She thereby wants to explore the depths and paradoxes of human emotions.
She paints with oil on canvas in an alternation between a thick, rough application of paint and thinly painted areas. In addition to the paintings she makes drawing, mostly using graphite and pastels.
The subjects often include the complex aspects of motherhood, or female figures in dreamlike, watery landscapes which suggest aspects of the artist's unconsious.
But it‘s not only the subject matter of the paintings that interests her, but also the emotions that arise through the execution of a painting. She explores the gestures of the brush strokes, the materiality of the oil paint, and the hard or soft lines in the drawings she produces. Her painting method is associative. Often she mixes images from art history with her own inner collection of experiences, memories and dreams.
Emeli Theander, originally from Sweden, studied at University of the Arts Berlin 2006-2012. She lives and works in Berlin since 2003.
Hi Emeli, tell us about your background. How and when did you first start to paint?
I grew up mostly in the Swedish countryside. I remember once as a small kid being at a distant relative’s house, who was an artist. Their house made such a fantastic impression on me, with a staircase railing carved like a dragon and lots of paintings everywhere. In the garden they had an angry goat, that, looking back, I am always reminded of when I see Rauschenberg’s goat with the car tire around its belly. This place was so magical to me that I decided to become an artist myself.
I went to an art-focused high school and during this time I was also involved with making fanzines (diy paper magazines).
After finishing high school I directly went to visit a friend in Berlin. It was a kind of escape. Instead of returning to Sweden I learned how to make silk screen prints, using my closet as a dark room, and earned my living by selling my drawings as prints on paper and second hand clothes on a weekly market. Back then it was very cheap and easy to live in Berlin. During this time, early 2000, street art became more widespread, and I was active under the name of Chin Chin. I painted big figures with acrylic on paper, cut them out and glued them to house walls at night. Three years later I applied to the University of Arts Berlin and was accepted. During my time at the university my interest in painting with oil grew very strong. I also got a stipend that made it possible for me to go live and work in Seoul/South Korea for six months and this period had a huge impact on me and my work.
Another important “milestone” for my work (and myself) was to become a mother. I was very afraid of how it could change my painting, my time/focus and of course also my opportunities in the art world. But it turned out to be a very evolving and inspiring thing for me in terms of painting. I’m very happy that in recent times I see more and more women that became mothers and still have a very strong artistic identity. When I became a mother I also developed a potentially life threatening autoimmune disease and I was very close to dying a few times. This was also a factor which has change my life and my way of painting. It made me “freer”, as if “nothing really matters” – in a good way! I feel less pressure and anxiety, the painting will become what it becomes.
What is your process like? How do you begin to work?
I collect things and images I’m drawn to in a personal “archive”. I think it’s very important to look at a lot of paintings, images, my surroundings and so on. So, when I start to work I mostly have an idea or fragments of ideas to work from, which I later transform.
I work intuitively, mostly I start by doing something to make the canvas or paper less white, like putting on graphite powder on a paper or oil color on the canva.
I do this to “loosen myself up”. In the next step I mostly work out the figure. When the figure and the main composition of the image are marked out, I work on the whole canvas simultaneously. I work “wet on wet”, meaning that I mostly don’t let the oil color dry in between sessions.
What is the story behind your paintings? You mentioned that you focus on human depths and paradoxical emotions, especially females, with watery landscapes by using thin and thick oil brushes. How are these features interconnected to the subject matter? What is your subject matter as a painter?
In the best case, I want my paintings to carry paradoxical emotions, and by that I mean the ones that are hard to grasp or “hidden”. It shouldn’t be obvious what emotions the image transforms, perhaps something humorous is going on, but at the same there is a tragic aspect. I use my oil paint in the same manner, I combine thick and loud strokes with thin, delicate layers.
I see painting as a way to dig into whatever it means to be human, like a psychological archeologist looking to reveal whatever is layered underneath the surface. Recently, the different facettes of “motherhood” have become a big part of my subject matter as well.
How do you relate your unconscious to landscapes?
Water is often seen as a symbol of the unconscious in literature and art. Personally I have created this imaginary vision of the unconscious, which resembles a botanical greenhouse. In these garden rooms I see figures and landscape being mirrored, reflected by the imaginary walls or in the water. I feel that being mirrored gives me a sense of self and secures me from getting lost in my own wild nature.
How has art history influenced you and the art you create?
Wether I like it or not, Romanticism and its escape from reality is something I come back to. My work is emotionally charged and I’m drawn to the poetic and sometimes bombastic imagery from this period. My favorite landscape painter from this period is probably Corot. Henry Fuseli´s “The Nightmare” is another painting I often come back to, and I’ve done several interpretations of it.
I’m also inspired by the impressionists, like Vuillard, Monet and Sorolla, mostly because I’m fascinated by how the paint is applied and how they capture the light and shadows using bright colors.
