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BEAUTIES AND BEASTS: FOR ELIZABETH ROMHILD, LIFE IS AN ARTISTIC JOURNEY, AND THE JOURNEY GOES ON AND ON
Story By Usnisa Sukhsvasti
Bangkok Post
http://www.bangkokpost.com/Outlook/26May2008_ out01.php
May 26 2008
Thailand
'The orange is gone!"
This observation by artist Elizabeth Romhild on her own work was made
partly in satisfaction and partly in surprise tinged with a slight
wistfulness. In the past decade her work has been dominated by the
"blue bowl with oranges", a motif that has been translated into her
series on women with the trademark round breasts in vibrant colours.
Her latest collection is no longer dominated by breasts; while they
still appear now and again, they are not the focus of the total
image. Romhild is exuberant about this collection, which is being
premie'red in her native Denmark in June under the title "Dawn". The
name is a reference to a new stage in her artistic career, the dawn
of a new beginning, so to speak. Rather appropriate, in fact, when
you consider her artistic development, which seems to have entered
a new phase of growth and maturity.
Gone are the bouncy, saucy, confident women with their bouncy round
breasts like oranges, which adorned her previous canvases. Gone is
the frivolity, gaiety and light-heartedness of those vibrant paintings.
The new collection draws inspiration from her trip to Africa. The
vibrant colours still remain, an integral part of the Romhild persona,
but the outlines are softer, less defined. Women are still featured,
but these are strong, mature, powerful Masai women in a pure, raw
environment, adorned by their colourful ethnic beads and fabrics
that put you in touch with a more basic, more intrinsic side of man
and beast.
The mysterious masked women that often appeared in her earlier
paintings is now reflected in the painted tribal faces and magnificent
wild beasts of the Savannah which, to Romhild, resemble masks that
entice you to imagine what kind of thoughts are going on behind those
haunting eyes.
Two enormous 2x2m canvases, one of a lion and the other of a tiger ("A
tiger's not an African animal, but I couldn't resist the urge to paint
this beautiful big cat.") both seem to embody the new Romhild. The eyes
are the main focus of the canvases, much like Romhild's own enormous
Danish-Armenian eyes that draw you in and capture you as she speaks
animatedly of her work, exuding a deep excitement and passion for
her new collection, for her boundless inspiration, for life.
Eyes, or the lack thereof, to be more precise, are also the focal
point of a painting of a dark tribal face that has none of Romhild's
trademark colours. This one has been executed in ominous greys,
the black soulless eyes creating a mysterious and foreboding force
that is further enhanced by the paint drizzles that have become one
of Romhild's favourite techniques for the current collection.
The brushstrokes have also taken on a new expressiveness. She reverted
to pointillism for the tiger image, but used freer, coarser and
more fluid strokes for the lion painting. Upon closer inspection,
there is clear evidence of scratch marks on the canvas; signs of the
wild cat in Romhild letting herself loose in her form of expression,
adding an evocative texture to the overall image.
Romhild has not restricted herself to canvas, either. Images of nomadic
tribesmen and beasts adorn old tabletops, kitchen cabinet doors with
handles still intact. This is the more playful Romhild, just letting
her imagination run free. The wood texture gives way to the rough hide
of the African elephant, while the cabinet handle has become part of
a necklace for a Masai woman. Buttons and even safety pins have been
added to the oil paint for added dimension and, one might say, humour.
For Romhild, this has been a journey of discovery. Like her entire
artistic career, it seems to have come in its own time, of its own
accord. A self-taught artist, Romhild personal journeys into the world
- to Iran as a young girl, then in Saudi Arabia, the US, Indonesia
and then Thailand, have helped to forge her innate talents that were
already apparent as a young girl. Scrap books from her childhood art
class show the same "oranges in a blue bowl" that were to become such
a tour de force for her artistic explosion in Thailand.
It was in Indonesia at the age of 26 that Romhild first indulged
in her passion for art seriously, drawing realistic sketches in
watercolour of the slum communities, and portraits of local people
from the eyes of a keen observer. Already her love of textures was
apparent, with meticulous attention being paid to the rust on the
dilapidated corrugated iron roofs, mildew on walls.
Seascapes were next, with local art critics in Indonesia predicting
a bright future for this young expat artist upon the launch of her
Jakarta exhibition.
Her creative juices were put on the back burner as motherhood took over
her entire being during her early days in Thailand. Two children came
in close succession, and while she indulged in the joys of motherhood,
it also played havoc with her own sense of identity.
"I lost track of who I was. Breastfeeding my children made me feel
like a milk cow, like that was my sole purpose in life," she remarked
with a laugh.
She stopped painting for four years as she raised her children in
their early years, though she managed to channel her frustrations
into a series of surreal drawings.
One shows a woman, breasts exposed, with a cloth covering her
head, hands and feet interchanged. "I no longer knew who I was,"
she explained.
Another shows a woman running, with an open mouth instead of a
head. The mouth is screaming, venting the pent-up anxiety and
frustration that most new mothers feel at one time or another.
Yet another, Birth of an Egg, shows a woman with a child coming
out of a vagina-like opening in her tummy. Others are more erotic
in content. She looks back on this series with a sense of fondness
and even curiosity now, a fulfilled mother of two wonderful teenage
children.
At this point the "oranges in a blue bowl" returned with a
vengeance. She began to play around with the idea, coming up with
various interpretations of the theme; the bowl of oranges sitting
on a table, the bowl tipping over sending the oranges flying in
all directions, the oranges turning into orange juice, two oranges
morphing into female breasts.
"The round orange breast and the blue colour from the bowl was the
main colour combination in my work for many years, with the circle
being eternal love," she noted. She considers red and turquoise to
be the colours that more represent the essential Elizabeth Romhild,
and credits the strong Asian sunlight for her use of the vibrant colour
palette. The strong outlines, the contrasting use of light and shadow,
the reds and blues, cold and hot, are very much a reaction to the
Asian environment where she has been living for the past 25 years,
as opposed to the grey and undefinable impressions of Europe.
This sense of balance is very much an integral part of her work, being
the Libra that she is. And each work is only considered complete when
she is able to achieve that delicate balance.
Romhild is an extremely disciplined artist. Mornings are usually
spent doing her daily chores and exercising (painting large canvases
is very physically demanding), but as afternoon comes, she heads for
her upstairs studio with windows running down one entire wall to let
in natural daylight.
The room is stacked with completed canvases, while a commissioned work
in progress is against one wall. Her paints are on a trolley that can
be moved around as needed. Painting such huge canvases requires an
immense amount of energy, applying the oils with sweeping strokes,
moving back and forth to get different perspectives of the image,
not to mention all the dancing that is involved!
"The moment I walk into my studio I turn on some music - classical
or contemporary, depending on my mood. Three months ago it was
Sting's Sacred Love, endlessly. Or I might put on Queen full blast
and dance around. At other times it's Amadeus, Requiem, Carmen
Fantasia by Anne-Sophie Mutter, or Buddha Bar. These are some of
my favourites. It's the energy in the rhythm that moves my hands,
not the actual tune."
Romhild works with her heart, not her head, and she is not afraid to
take risks. She lets her imagination run free when she's starting on
a new canvas, working from a rough outline in acrylic but then letting
the image take on a life of its own, which often means changing things
that are already down on the canvas. She admits that she never really
knows the result of her work, since ideas often pop up during the
process. Her painting of two giraffes with their necks intertwined
underwent several transformations before she was satisfied with
the results.
For this new collection, Romhild has also moved into the sphere of
three-dimensional art with a series of sculptures in bronze that are
based on some of her paintings. They comprise a Masai bust, a horn,
and a buffalo skull, as well as "Ecstasy Ladies", a series of lively,
robust ladies in mid-pirouette.
"My hands are so strong now," she laughed when describing her foray
into a new artistic medium. "I enjoy having both hands on the material,
to be able to create three dimensions."
It started with a Christmas tree design project for the Four Seasons
Hotel Bangkok when she came up with the idea of a bronze tree with
Thai motifs. The acquisition of the techniques and suppliers inspired
her to explore the medium further, and she is currently enjoying the
process - another exciting journey of discovery.
"Like my canvases, I have played with a lot of texture in my clay
sculptures," she explained, referring to the indents and marks made
by her fingers and nails into the surface of the Masai bust. "I want
it to look a little raw, not refined," she added, the wild, earthy
side of her apparent.
Romhild is currently travelling back and forth between Bangkok and
Ayutthaya where her bronze sculptures are being cast from her clay
designs. Soon they will be packed away and delivered to Galerie Knud
Grothe Charlottenlund in Copenhagen for a June 14 opening, where she
is celebrating the 10th anniversary of her first exhibition there.
Although Romhild may have her head in the clouds when it comes to
artistic creativity, her feet are firmly on the ground as a result of
her supportive and loving family, husband Peter, and her two children,
whom she considers to be her greatest works of art.
Story By Usnisa Sukhsvasti
Bangkok Post
http://www.bangkokpost.com/Outlook/26May2008_ out01.php
May 26 2008
Thailand
'The orange is gone!"
This observation by artist Elizabeth Romhild on her own work was made
partly in satisfaction and partly in surprise tinged with a slight
wistfulness. In the past decade her work has been dominated by the
"blue bowl with oranges", a motif that has been translated into her
series on women with the trademark round breasts in vibrant colours.
Her latest collection is no longer dominated by breasts; while they
still appear now and again, they are not the focus of the total
image. Romhild is exuberant about this collection, which is being
premie'red in her native Denmark in June under the title "Dawn". The
name is a reference to a new stage in her artistic career, the dawn
of a new beginning, so to speak. Rather appropriate, in fact, when
you consider her artistic development, which seems to have entered
a new phase of growth and maturity.
Gone are the bouncy, saucy, confident women with their bouncy round
breasts like oranges, which adorned her previous canvases. Gone is
the frivolity, gaiety and light-heartedness of those vibrant paintings.
The new collection draws inspiration from her trip to Africa. The
vibrant colours still remain, an integral part of the Romhild persona,
but the outlines are softer, less defined. Women are still featured,
but these are strong, mature, powerful Masai women in a pure, raw
environment, adorned by their colourful ethnic beads and fabrics
that put you in touch with a more basic, more intrinsic side of man
and beast.
The mysterious masked women that often appeared in her earlier
paintings is now reflected in the painted tribal faces and magnificent
wild beasts of the Savannah which, to Romhild, resemble masks that
entice you to imagine what kind of thoughts are going on behind those
haunting eyes.
Two enormous 2x2m canvases, one of a lion and the other of a tiger ("A
tiger's not an African animal, but I couldn't resist the urge to paint
this beautiful big cat.") both seem to embody the new Romhild. The eyes
are the main focus of the canvases, much like Romhild's own enormous
Danish-Armenian eyes that draw you in and capture you as she speaks
animatedly of her work, exuding a deep excitement and passion for
her new collection, for her boundless inspiration, for life.
Eyes, or the lack thereof, to be more precise, are also the focal
point of a painting of a dark tribal face that has none of Romhild's
trademark colours. This one has been executed in ominous greys,
the black soulless eyes creating a mysterious and foreboding force
that is further enhanced by the paint drizzles that have become one
of Romhild's favourite techniques for the current collection.
The brushstrokes have also taken on a new expressiveness. She reverted
to pointillism for the tiger image, but used freer, coarser and
more fluid strokes for the lion painting. Upon closer inspection,
there is clear evidence of scratch marks on the canvas; signs of the
wild cat in Romhild letting herself loose in her form of expression,
adding an evocative texture to the overall image.
Romhild has not restricted herself to canvas, either. Images of nomadic
tribesmen and beasts adorn old tabletops, kitchen cabinet doors with
handles still intact. This is the more playful Romhild, just letting
her imagination run free. The wood texture gives way to the rough hide
of the African elephant, while the cabinet handle has become part of
a necklace for a Masai woman. Buttons and even safety pins have been
added to the oil paint for added dimension and, one might say, humour.
For Romhild, this has been a journey of discovery. Like her entire
artistic career, it seems to have come in its own time, of its own
accord. A self-taught artist, Romhild personal journeys into the world
- to Iran as a young girl, then in Saudi Arabia, the US, Indonesia
and then Thailand, have helped to forge her innate talents that were
already apparent as a young girl. Scrap books from her childhood art
class show the same "oranges in a blue bowl" that were to become such
a tour de force for her artistic explosion in Thailand.
It was in Indonesia at the age of 26 that Romhild first indulged
in her passion for art seriously, drawing realistic sketches in
watercolour of the slum communities, and portraits of local people
from the eyes of a keen observer. Already her love of textures was
apparent, with meticulous attention being paid to the rust on the
dilapidated corrugated iron roofs, mildew on walls.
Seascapes were next, with local art critics in Indonesia predicting
a bright future for this young expat artist upon the launch of her
Jakarta exhibition.
Her creative juices were put on the back burner as motherhood took over
her entire being during her early days in Thailand. Two children came
in close succession, and while she indulged in the joys of motherhood,
it also played havoc with her own sense of identity.
"I lost track of who I was. Breastfeeding my children made me feel
like a milk cow, like that was my sole purpose in life," she remarked
with a laugh.
She stopped painting for four years as she raised her children in
their early years, though she managed to channel her frustrations
into a series of surreal drawings.
One shows a woman, breasts exposed, with a cloth covering her
head, hands and feet interchanged. "I no longer knew who I was,"
she explained.
Another shows a woman running, with an open mouth instead of a
head. The mouth is screaming, venting the pent-up anxiety and
frustration that most new mothers feel at one time or another.
Yet another, Birth of an Egg, shows a woman with a child coming
out of a vagina-like opening in her tummy. Others are more erotic
in content. She looks back on this series with a sense of fondness
and even curiosity now, a fulfilled mother of two wonderful teenage
children.
At this point the "oranges in a blue bowl" returned with a
vengeance. She began to play around with the idea, coming up with
various interpretations of the theme; the bowl of oranges sitting
on a table, the bowl tipping over sending the oranges flying in
all directions, the oranges turning into orange juice, two oranges
morphing into female breasts.
"The round orange breast and the blue colour from the bowl was the
main colour combination in my work for many years, with the circle
being eternal love," she noted. She considers red and turquoise to
be the colours that more represent the essential Elizabeth Romhild,
and credits the strong Asian sunlight for her use of the vibrant colour
palette. The strong outlines, the contrasting use of light and shadow,
the reds and blues, cold and hot, are very much a reaction to the
Asian environment where she has been living for the past 25 years,
as opposed to the grey and undefinable impressions of Europe.
This sense of balance is very much an integral part of her work, being
the Libra that she is. And each work is only considered complete when
she is able to achieve that delicate balance.
Romhild is an extremely disciplined artist. Mornings are usually
spent doing her daily chores and exercising (painting large canvases
is very physically demanding), but as afternoon comes, she heads for
her upstairs studio with windows running down one entire wall to let
in natural daylight.
The room is stacked with completed canvases, while a commissioned work
in progress is against one wall. Her paints are on a trolley that can
be moved around as needed. Painting such huge canvases requires an
immense amount of energy, applying the oils with sweeping strokes,
moving back and forth to get different perspectives of the image,
not to mention all the dancing that is involved!
"The moment I walk into my studio I turn on some music - classical
or contemporary, depending on my mood. Three months ago it was
Sting's Sacred Love, endlessly. Or I might put on Queen full blast
and dance around. At other times it's Amadeus, Requiem, Carmen
Fantasia by Anne-Sophie Mutter, or Buddha Bar. These are some of
my favourites. It's the energy in the rhythm that moves my hands,
not the actual tune."
Romhild works with her heart, not her head, and she is not afraid to
take risks. She lets her imagination run free when she's starting on
a new canvas, working from a rough outline in acrylic but then letting
the image take on a life of its own, which often means changing things
that are already down on the canvas. She admits that she never really
knows the result of her work, since ideas often pop up during the
process. Her painting of two giraffes with their necks intertwined
underwent several transformations before she was satisfied with
the results.
For this new collection, Romhild has also moved into the sphere of
three-dimensional art with a series of sculptures in bronze that are
based on some of her paintings. They comprise a Masai bust, a horn,
and a buffalo skull, as well as "Ecstasy Ladies", a series of lively,
robust ladies in mid-pirouette.
"My hands are so strong now," she laughed when describing her foray
into a new artistic medium. "I enjoy having both hands on the material,
to be able to create three dimensions."
It started with a Christmas tree design project for the Four Seasons
Hotel Bangkok when she came up with the idea of a bronze tree with
Thai motifs. The acquisition of the techniques and suppliers inspired
her to explore the medium further, and she is currently enjoying the
process - another exciting journey of discovery.
"Like my canvases, I have played with a lot of texture in my clay
sculptures," she explained, referring to the indents and marks made
by her fingers and nails into the surface of the Masai bust. "I want
it to look a little raw, not refined," she added, the wild, earthy
side of her apparent.
Romhild is currently travelling back and forth between Bangkok and
Ayutthaya where her bronze sculptures are being cast from her clay
designs. Soon they will be packed away and delivered to Galerie Knud
Grothe Charlottenlund in Copenhagen for a June 14 opening, where she
is celebrating the 10th anniversary of her first exhibition there.
Although Romhild may have her head in the clouds when it comes to
artistic creativity, her feet are firmly on the ground as a result of
her supportive and loving family, husband Peter, and her two children,
whom she considers to be her greatest works of art.