Steen Lersten Petterson

"Painting is easy when you don't know how, but very difficult when you do". (Edgar Degas)

I am self taught as a painter and I paint because I do not know how not to. Painting has always been an obsession and I also wanted this to be my vocation. But I had my first solo exhibition at the age of 56 after practicising as an architect for 30 years and painting only in my spare time and only for my own amusement.

My approach to the task of painting is simple. The task must be solved on the surface, on the canvas, board or paper. It is not a question of depicting the landscape before you with as great likeness as possible. The task is to create a "painting" that reflects my temperament with the tools at hand. And hopefully the viewer will recognize that temperament. Likeness is subordinate. I often add different materials to my paintings, pieces of cloth, tissue paper, sawdust and sand. Even though the inspiration to paint a particular picture comes from the motif I always start by trying to imagine an image of the "painting", how I want the painting to exhibit itself, composition, color, texture etc.

I try to study the old masters and how they solved their "tasks" - i.e. the seascapes and forest scenes of the French painte...

Hull College of Art - School of Architecture 1975