As preparation for todays visit at the art gallery (Galleri Sjöhästen) – I dressed me up in grey. Except for my coloured shirt and my Vagabond shoes. Gray trousers, grey blazer and a gray soul. Different shades of gray ;). Among all art works in the gallery – I saw some of them having gray surfaces as part of their expression. I didn’t expect that, so my choice of outfit was a coincidence.

It’s the last day of the exhibition by Maragareta Gelles (painting, acryl/oil) and Claes Andersson (painting/mixed media). My first impression, or the general description can be summarized in; Muscle cars side by side with playfullness and proof of artistic skills.

In nearly all paintings by Margareta, I could find a character from Disney. Other paintings have expressions through gray fields and 3D surfaces. That was the only time when I saw a depth in her paintings. All other paintings haven’t 3D compositions. That’s the point – I think. Two of her paintings is not in the same style as the others. It’s a huge contrast to her more playful art works. Even their titles! Swedish titles to compare with all others with English titles! The paintings showing how good she is to paint with different kind of motifs at the same time she working with all her playful motifs! I got it confirmed! There is depth, movements and all standard compositions/perspectives.

In all Claes paintings, I see a car or two. Mostly cars with horse power under the hood. Cars combined with texts from newspapers or text, written by the artist himself – shows us some kind of affiliation (between the car and the text). The text is a print screen – directly on the canvas. Thereafter covered by varnish. Not before the end of my visit, I found that Claes has a coloured line in his works of art. Different colour for each painting, as a border between two fields. I liked that. There are many traffic signs and lights, combined with maps and other common motifs, belonging to the life with big cars.

To summarize my visit – I give different ratings over the exhibition, because – I like Cleas mixed media and Maragaretas two stylistic paintings. The other – more playful paintings, is too expressive for my “tiny brain” to swallow all cryptic messages. An other common point, wich I liked in her paintings, is her try to leave out surfaces to us, to find or filled up with our own imagination. For example – the art work ”Someone”. A painting in my style (noir). Nearly a full black surface with a code by ones and zeros in the bottom field and a small female portrait in bottom corner – to show how we after all, can find hidden things in it. The code as a motif, comes again i other art works – but not in the same context.

And now! The symbolic research on the most common motifs! A car with a lot of horsepower, makes me think of the symbols, horse and car 😉 To make it easy, I give you a short symbolic description of “Horse” and the connection to the cars in Claes paintings. The horse is a symbol for nobility, rapidity and beauty. Precise the same thing with the cars in his paintings. It’s even a symbol for having the power – to take the power. A running horse stands for the power of nature and rapidity – but the symbolic meaning of the horse, varies between the colour of the horse.

Björn Blomqvist 2015-05-24