BLUE DOG ART
Searching for the perfect imperfection
Welcome to Blue Dog Art
Hello, my name is Erik. Welcome to my web-site, it is kaleidoscopic view into my art, the processes, thoughts and emotions around art. And you may then ask: But where does the blue dog come into the picture? The blue dog appeared one night early in my creative journey. And he wouldn’t leave me alone. So whenever I feel like painting but I don’t know what to do, the light is not right, or my brain is too scattered for the works that require structured working I paint the blue dog. He always stand attentive looking to the left. Though edgy and at times at bit bitey he is a loyal friend that will go through darkness and fire fighting back the black dog and other unpleasant creatures of the mind.
I hope you will enjoy your visit in my world of art
Again, welcome
Why do I paint?
For many years I have had an interest in art. I saw myself as a consumer of art. But not too long before the world shut down due to the pandemic I had yet another fight with “the stress monster”, but this time round I was sent to a psychologist (Pro-tip: Don’t tell managers that they are a waste of time). After talks and tests she made me realize that I, amongst other, suffer from creativity. Ok, she might not have used exactly that wording, but rather that creativity is my greatest motivator. After some, mostly gentle, nudging she got me started with art. And now you are looking at my homepage with my art. The history how it went from nudging to homepage will be scattered around on my homepage.
Why this web-site?
This site is about my creative journey.
Friends and other nice people kept telling me that my creations were not only for the shelves and the big moving box, and for long my doubt won. So one could say that this site is also a part of the journey. At times making this I feel just a vulnerable as standing naked in the middle of a large square.
Is this website also a showcase where I want to tempt you to acquire a piece of my art? Yes, of course it is. And if you like anything particular then drop me a message using the contact form. But more than anything I want you to experience art. As someone once said: Earth without art, is just Eh…
I also hope to inspire other to do something similar. Follow their passion, it doesn’t have to be art (though I’d really like if it is), and dare show it to the world.
Language
This home page will have English as primary language. Why? I know far more non-Danish speakers, than Danes not knowing English. Some of these non-Danish speakers have been essential in my process to not only to paint for the shelves at home. Wanting those, who nudged me forward, also to be able to read this combined with a pinch of laziness made my go for the English only option.
That said, some titles and statements will be in other languages (Mostly Danish and German) and remain without any translation because I am unable translate it in a good way. Elegance, rhyme, alliterations, connotations, precision, double meanings, or play on idioms would be lost if I tried to. It’s like a joke, most don’t get any better by being explained.
Why do I paint?
For many years I have had an interest in art. I saw myself as a consumer of art. But not too long before the world shut down due to the pandemic I had yet another fight with “the stress monster” (Pro-tip: Don’t tell managers that they are a waste of time), but this time round I was sent to a psychologist. After talks and tests she made me realize that I, amongst other, suffer from creativity. Ok, she might not have used exactly that wording, but rather something in the line of that creativity is my greatest motivator. After some, mostly gentle, nudging she got me started with art. And now you are looking at my homepage with my art. The history how it went from nudging to homepage will be scattered around on this page.
Why paint?
I had to do something creative, but what?
Cooking – Well, my waistline is already problematic. And to be honest, it is much more fun cook for someone else. And my jam- and chutney-making was already “at a semi-industrial scale” according to my friends.
Music – When even I can hear you are off beat or out of tune then you probably shouldn’t perform for other. That says all you need to know about my musical skills or rather complete lack of.
Multimedia – Though I work as a programmer, it is not IT technology that I find interesting. What I like is helping other using the stringent logic in programming. My lack of interest in technology goes to the extent that a Singaporean colleague once called me “the analog man”.
Painting, drawing etc. I had had a couple of false starts with those, because these disciplines somehow attracted me. And I had touched upon them in my activities as set designer/builder for student cabarets and amateur theater years back.
Learning to art
I am self-taught, in the sense that I haven’t attended any courses about painting and drawing. I am a horrible, occasionally somewhat lazy, student with a penchant for trying to bend the rules. No, not breaking them, teachers typically know what to do with rule breakers but surprisingly less so with rule benders. Coming of a family of teachers I have many, many years experience in driving teachers mad.
I sometimes consult some books and YouTube videos, but I rarely read/see them end to end. I just try and see what happens. Not surprisingly, I rarely end up with what I imagined. Sometimes the result is better than expected, in most cases it isn’t. But painting have made me better at embracing my mistakes. But in the end, a great thing about painting you can just paint over your worst mistakes and start over.
True to my slogan, searching for the perfect imperfection, I return to a motive over and over, trying to improve the expression. Sometime they are quite similar other times not. As a consequence of this iterative method many of my works have the same title with just a number added. Sometimes they also have an subtitle or the theme title became the subtitle.
My media
Acrylics
on canvas, cardboard, fiberboard, plywood, well, basically any somewhat flat surface that paint will stick to and that I can get my hands on. Recycled (packaging) materials are a favorite of mine. Often I feel a bit restrained when I am working with a new white canvas or some of the really nice art paper. It is as if then things get serious and result must be good. There is no more messing around.
Note: The pictures I present in the galleries are sometimes grouped in themes, but there is no chronology in the order.
Drawing
Either on the back side of old bank statements, course notes and similar piles of paper that tend to accumulate in the corners of my home or in my sketch books. Occasionally I try using proper drawing paper, but it doesn’t really work for me.
My sketch books, well, I rarely sketch in them for my paintings. I catch ideas, frustrations, boredom, absurdities, or just quirky observations in them. Occasionally I try to train “classical” drawing, but my untethered brain has an underwhelming patience and an overwhelming amount of other ideas, so very often I end up doing something else.
I use pencil, pen, and sometimes paint and brush.
Collages
I am often using all kinds of discarded items. Some of the collages are what I call 2½ dimensional. Old wood wine crates, you know, those crates for 2-4 bottles of wine that you use for a gift to someone you really don’t know but have to give a decent gift, are often my “canvas”.
The process is often very slow, sometimes it takes years. I might miss the right bit or I have the bits but they will not settle on their right place on “the canvas”. But suddenly I have the Eureka moment and the pieces falls into place. More than once it happend when I accidentally pushed the bits while doing something else.
A little about me
The rest you will find scattered in and around the pictures
My name is Erik Brun, I am old enough to remember having seen all the moon landings live on black and white television.
I am living on my own in Copenhagen, Outer Frederiksberg, for the locals, Denmark. I grew up in a village with ambitions, because it had, and still has, a train station and a school. One of those places where people didn’t talk with each other, they talked about each other. Strangers (meaning, anyone from beyond two, maybe three, villages over) and anyone who weren’t strictly mainstream were met with suspicion. Well, nowadays it’s probably just another outer suburb to Greater Copenhagen. Anyway, I took the train to Copenhagen, where independent thinking is much less frowned upon, stayed here, studied biology (mostly enjoying making student cabarets), and didn’t always stay on the beaten path.
When I am not creating art, see friends, sleep, or go on with menial household chores, I work as a programmer in research and development for a large research based company.
News and Updates
04–Nov-2024
Launch of the site
As the site hasn’t reached the state of perfect imperfection there will be small unannounced updates and corrections
Eventually! The site is launched. It took much doubt and a few false starts to get so far. To all of you who nudged me forward – Thank you very, very much for believing that my art was not only for the shelves at home.