Kristin Holm Dybvig — Contemporary Art Curator Magazine

May 5

May 5 Kristin Holm Dybvig

Biography

Kristin Holm Dybvig is a Norwegian artist, educated in England. Art in different forms and mediums has impacted her life from early on and after a year at the Faroe Islands collecting experiences and memories trying out own art and teaching art, she moved back to Norway working as an Art Director in a Advertising Agency. Kristin moved to England to study and received her diploma from Tobias School of Art in 1997. After graduating she moved back to Norway to work as an art therapist for children and young adults, she stayed with this until she decided to continue her career as s painter three years ago. Kristin has exhibited her work in England, Switzerland, Italy and Norway. She happily connects with the world from her small garden studio, where you find her creating art with her favourite handmade soft pastels staying close to her inspiring landscapes.

Artist Statement

I like to weave colour into poetic colour moods using a lyrical palette of soft pastels. I live and work at the West Coast of Norway, and find inspiration in the unpredictability, greatness and immense calm in the nature here. I want my artwork to convey the contrasting qualities of transience and serenity, drama and timelessness these old landscapes provide. I want to capture the moments of longevity and let it reflect the openness and simplicity. I’m interested in how the colours appear and change and love to rework memories from walks and journeys into colourful abstractions. The intensity and inner luminosity of the soft pastels match my perception well, the slow process building layers of colour challenge me to be selective and deliberate in how I develop my composition, keeping the colour as the central focus of each artwork. I use my hands and fingers to smudge, mix and shape the velvety and matte surface, I use eraser, sandpaper, brushes and pastel pencils to add effects. The process of creating depth and sculpting the colours, adding and subtracting lasts until it has become my personal interpretation of the land, like a memory captured.

What first prompted you to think of becoming an artist?

Colour have fascinated and kindled my imagination my whole life, it has been the main ingredient in my work throughout my years. The opportunities that presented themselves sent me on different paths. I made a career as an Art-Director in a advertising agency, some years later I was ready to try something new and wanted a new direction in my life and moved to England where I studied art and art therapy. My lifelong passion with colour unfolds itself in my artwork. For as long back as I remember I have colour memories and I perceive much of my surroundings through the colours and experience nature often as an abstract imagery. Beautiful colours, vibrant or soothing, surprising and fun, all of them wherever they appear continue to fascinate and inspire me. A few years back I got the opportunity to focus on my artwork, and decided it was time to develop my own artwork full time, I haven’t looked back. I live and work on the West coast of Norway with the North Sea at one side and Fjords on the other. I want to convey my perception of these old landscapes to the viewer, to visualise the abundant beauty and vulnerability of the nature through the veil of memories and the vibrancy of the colours. My pastel paintings are like colourful stain glass windows revealing a footprint of my soul and transporting the viewer to my beloved landscapes. Standing in a landscape without traces of human activity merge the experience of the past and the present. The timelessness of these old landscapes stop the time and create moments of longevity. Remnants of old, lived lives trigger my imagination and bring back a touch of the past I can connect with. By conserving these golden moments I make my own brand of permanence and bring together the present and the future.

What kind of an artist do you ultimately see yourself?

I want to become a strong visual artist with a personal expression that will inspire the viewer to find qualities she need in her life and can connect with. My artwork will always have colour as a main ingredient and together with my connection to nature, where I find inspiration, the union of these two grow to become my personal expression. I like to think that by sharing the calmness and beauty I find in nature, together with the respect I have for it it will convey the viewer of its magic and that she will see the value in taking care of, explore and love it too.

What are you hoping to communicate to the viewer through your work?

I like to weave colours into poetic colour moods using a lyrical palette of soft pastels. I find inspiration in the unpredictability, beauty and immense calm the nature here provide. I want my artwork to convey the contrasting qualities of transience and serenity, drama and variation that I experience in nature. The timelessness of these old landscapes create moments of longevity that I want in my work, reflecting the openness and simplicity. I want to give the viewer my perceptions of these lyrical landscapes and the immense power and joy that is brought by the colours as they reflects qualities of our soul that we need in our lives.

Can you explain the process of creating your work?

I like to work from memories and like to collect them on trips and journeys, always keeping an eye out for interesting colours and shapes. Quite some time must pass before I can revisit my memories and use them as inception for my artwork and rework them into colourful abstractions. The memories need to mature and get a bit blurred by the veil of time before I can see them in the right light and use them freely as inspiration. It’s like a good story that’s based on a true happening, it need to be retold to find its own form and to become a story in it’s own right. I find that the intensity and inner luminosity of the soft pastels match my perception well, the slow process of building the layers of colours challenge me to be selective and deliberate in how I develop my composition, keeping the colour as the central focus of each artwork. I use my hands and fingers as my main tools, smudging, mixing and shaping and sculpting the velvety matte surface in addition I like to use eraser, sandpaper, brushes and pastel pencils to add effects. This process of adding layers lasts until it has become my personal interpretation of the land, like a memory captured.

What is your favourite part of the creative process?

My first thought was to answer that it must be the beginning of a new work, when time stops and my only focus is what’s unfolding on the paper, when its about playing and exploring. But I think it is the moment when I have observed what I have on the paper and found the direction I want to take it, its a magical moment and a very inspiring one. It’s like I have solved a challenge where I had to use all my experience and skills, my imagination and memories to the full to incarnate my vision.

Can you give us an insight into current projects and inspiration, or what we can look forward to from you in the near future?

I build my work on memories and experiences, this summer I'm planning to drive and boat along the coast to see more colourful waters, enchanted water views, dramatic horizons and lyrical landscapes along the majestic mountains and mighty fjords and meet inspiring people who live and work here. I’m looking forward to make new memories and to refill my inspiration. Since my work is intuitive and based on memories this journey will bring forth many new ideas and a few new series too. In a longer perspective I’m looking forward to reconnect with my contacts abroad, as soon as the world are back to normal and its safe to travel again. I’m very much looking forward to carry out the planned and paused exhibitions abroad, connecting and reconnecting with the fabulous people, viewers and curators. But this last year has been an interesting time, its been good for delving deeper and to focus, exhibiting locally has been exiting too, in the future I want to balance this.

Website www.kristinholmdybvig.com

Instagram www.instagram.com/kristinholmdybvig