Interview with Elsa Akesson — Contemporary Art Curator Magazine

As an emerging artist from Sweden and Madagascar, Elsa ÅKESSON finds herself painting works inspired by both cultures. Recognized for her realistic figurative art works and her splash of vivid colors, she uses her photography as one of her main creative sources and evokes distinct emotions experienced in daily life, through the expression of color and the incorporation of human movement through her art. As a self-taught artist working on an international scale, Elsa Åkesson today specializes in oil painting and continues to teach herself new artistic techniques she discovers through experimentation and practice in her London studio.

Could you please introduce yourself and tell us how you started in the arts? and your first experience in art making?

I was a university student in Madrid studying Business and International Relations at IE University.

While I was focusing on my university studies, I would come home to paint and spent some weekends being creative. As time passed, the passion for painting and the determination to create grew stronger in me, although, I couldn't spend as much time as I wanted to in painting because I had to focus on my university work.

So at some point my feelings grew louder than my words and I decided to follow my creative passion and emerge myself fully in it. I dropped out of business school and applied to many different art schools which brought me to London to study art at UAL alongside starting my new creative journey of being a full time artist.

How would you describe yourself and your artwork?

My art is a representation of my self identity in a way. There are two main themes that are retrieved through my art and that is the African art theme and the theme of the female figure.

The African art theme comes from my origins and where I grew up as a child - Madagascar. Growing up surrounded by such purity in nature and joy in the eyes of little children and families of Madagascar is what shaped me as a person today and is a message I want to translate through my art. There are very strong virtues, honesty, a lot of positive energy, innocence and life in the children and families of Madagascar and I want to give them the attention and respect they deserve through my art.

The female figure theme arises from mainly being a woman myself. It is the most confident gender matter I know, which results in a feeling of being able to explore the subject matter in a very free way and be experimental about it.

Throughout the experimentation and painting process of the female body I uncover new elements of the subject matter which fascinates me more, and then brings me to want to continue to pursue the particular theme further.

All the works I create are very dynamic in terms of colors because I want to communicate a sense of cheerfulness through my art. I want people to look at my art and feel joy.

Where do you get your inspiration from?

I get my inspiration from everything that surrounds me. Inspiration is something that can hit me at any time. I sometimes see people on the streets or in the tube that will trigger my artistic inspirations. It can also come from the color palette of some buildings, walls, objects, or composition of spaces.

I use my photography as a main source of inspiration as well. What I do is I take loads of photographs during my travels, and when I get back to my studio I will look through all of them and there will always be one that hits me, and there it is I found my inspiration. I sometimes also incorporate elements from several different photographs into one art work.

I tend to always incorporate different types of captured inspirations into one art work. So for example, the background could have come from the composition of a book cover I loved, and the foreground from a person that triggered my inspiration on the tube.

I would say my three main artistic inspirations come from humanity, color and my photography.

What emotions do you hope the viewers experience when looking at your art?

I want them to feel comfortable. I create art to share joy and good energy through the color palettes I use. Art that has the ability to change the energy of a room and bring it to life. I want my collectors to go into their living room and feel lighthearted and cheerfulness in recognition to the energy of the painting.

When do you know that an artwork is finished ?

Since I am a figurative artist it is easy for me to know when an art work is finished. I always start my paintings with the background first and the main subject matter (the foreground) after. If I’m hesitating on whether it is done or not, I will leave it for a few days, work on something else in the meantime, then come back to it with a fresh pair of eyes. It always helps.

What has been the most exciting moment in your art career so far?

The most exciting and rewarding moment for me is every time a new art collector orders a painting and see’s it. Their reaction is so motivating.

How long does it take to produce one work?

It really depends on the size and the subject matter of what I am painting.

Portraits usually take one month because there are so many small details and it demands a lot of precision. Other works can sometimes take me three days.

If the inspiration is rushing in me I will sit and paint all day and all night until it is complete and in those cases it can take me a quarter of the time it would usually take me, so a few days instead of a few weeks.

What exciting projects are you working on right now?

Right now I am working on a series of works that share an important message and one I think humanity should be reminded of more frequently, and that is to be proud and confident in your own skin.

We live in a world today taken over by technology and social media influences, one where the “ideal” and what perfection looks like has been imposed on us. We’ve all been manipulated into thinking there is only one type of perfection. You need to be a certain height, a certain weight, your face needs to be a certain structure, the proportions of your body needs to be a certain way.

We are so caught up by all this manipulation, that we forget what truly makes us beautiful and we forget to appreciate and simply see the beauty in every other person because all we do is identify the flaws first and search for the idealized perfection.

So the series of works I am working on right now is in a way a reminder to be confident in your own skin, to love yourself with all proudness of being you, and to love every one around you the same way.