Karuma 1 Painting

"Karuma 1" is a medium sized hand painted canvas out of my on going series of abstract figurative female portraits (read more about the concept behind this style in my bio). I love how the painting evolves when being build up by so many layers, that also sometimes disappear again in the process. The base of the painting is build up by a mix of abstract painting and graffiti flavoured forms, put on with paint knives, brushes, markers and spray cans. Linking back to my creative past and influences like graffiti, graphic design, abstract art, street art and fine art. With this canvas (and the second Karuma 2) I was really inspired by these old Chinese and Japanese masks and really tried to create that atmosphere and power. In the period I was working on these 2 pieces I had some good experience with karma and that kinda stuck with the paintings. These line driven abstract figurative portraits are all hand painted with me trying to paint the black and white parts and line work as tight and clean as I can. I like to challenge myself when Im creating these pieces, trying to outdo myself. I’m actually editing curves and lines by scratching off paint with a surgical knife up to ten’s of a millimeter, basically trying to create a graphic image as clean and tight as a computer would. But all with paint and by hand. As I feel that art has a lot to do with artistry and skill next to creativity and originality. When working on top of a full color background as I like to do, it takes a lot of paint layers to cover it correctly and let it come out to the front of the canvas. All the white lines need to be precisely painted over 3 times to get a line as white and clean as you see in these pieces. It’s very time consuming but it definitely shows. The whole process of creating a canvas this size can easily take up to 3 weeks. It almost speaks for it self that you can only really experience a canvas like this in real life. Still I hope my pretty accurate photos and close ups can give you a good idea about this original one off canvas. The canvas will be shipped rolled up in a tube and can be easily re stretched, especially because it has been pre stretched before. (clear info on stretching this canvas will be supplied by me) The painted artwork also continues on the sides of the canvas when stretched. Therefore I advise everyone to ad a black box frame around the painting, so you can still see the painted sides. A black frame for me is almost part of the painting, as it communicates and continues all the black lines leaving or coming into the canvas. All canvasses are signed and finished with the same high quality satin gloss varnish that I have been using for the last 15 years. official signed COA is included.