MARIT STANDAL - Artiste créatrice

I left Norway for South of France because I needed another climate with more sunshine and be able to use all my time and concentration to develop my creative talent. Through more than 25 years I have participated in different courses, art-school and received advise from artists to learn the necessary skills in all kind of art-work.

My latest work is called “Reflections about light”. My thought or idea are that the light and colours are in reality a unity. That's why I have used the light as an integrated part of my work.

The colours we can see are reflections of the light.

This work is a continuation of the work, Versus, where I wanted to unite contradictions. In this work there's no contradictions, but my wish is to show the two sides of light.

I'm convinced that in the crystals we can find energy from all creations in the universe and I have found articles which confirm this. When particles of energy are passing through cosmic dust, a certain pattern appear. We can now find the same pattern in DNA. The energy in the sunlight create structure in chaos and life can emerge in the way we can experience in our world.

From the time of dawn, people have worshipped the sun in many ways and connected the sun to a divine energy.

I'm aware that my work can not even be close to what is created in nature, but I wanted to give it a try and share with you my thoughts with this work and may be I'm just started.........

1983 – 1999

All my work from this period are still in Norway and I have very few photos available. I look at my work through this years as exercises and done as studies in painting. I can see there is a gradual development from the purely figurative motifs to a more abstract expression. It was always my goal, but the difficulty was to find good mentors or teachers. I was aware that I needed more education or training to learn how to make abstract paintings. My job situation did not give me much time to such studies and the darkness during the winter drained my energy. A strong desire arrived in me to do something about the situation.....and the rest is history. I moved to France to be able to gain a full-time concentration and search for my own creativity. I didn't know if it was possible. I just had to try to use everything I had learned over many years in my own way.

1999 – 2004

The pictures are a mix of my attempts to use my knowledge from courses and education in Norway.

The reason for using an abstract expression are because it allows the viewer to create their own internal image. If I can see something familiar, I remove it as much as I can.

I have used many different materials to create structures on the surface. At the beginning it made certain problems, until I got enough experiences to take control over what happened.

The paintings with lines, forms and colours are from a period were I searched to develop my intuitive vision for balance in a composition. Weeks of important work before the vision was developed sufficiently. The paintings with a mosaic effect are an attempt to detach myself from the figurative. I let the colours run randomly on a structure of paper and from this create my own expression.

2005 – 2007

The figurative expression would not disappear easily. There are several paintings made without a special motif from the beginning but familiar elements still came into view.

I had already been fascinated by the bark of the cork oak and from 2006 the idea of creating some artwork with this material. After a short time this work took all my time. Many technical solutions had to be tested, failed and tried again with a new technique.

Through my work with Versus, I finally had found a way to create a story that was important for me to express. An idea or theme can be told in many different ways. How to unite opposites into a harmonious expression while giving them room to retain their individuality? That became the challenge.

2009 – 2011

My work with Versus continued. Expositions in France, Norway and Belgium, new work had to replace the sold ones and finally my story was finished.

2011 – 2014

I came to France to search for more light. Years ago, I had a dream about light and knew I had to try to realise this dream one day. The time had come. It's been a long journey with failure and success but finally I'm ready to show my “Reflection about light”.