Profile
Artist statement
I am a self-taught visual artist and work with acrylic on canvas and gouache on paper. I originally come from Amager - Copenhagen, but have lived for several years in Aarhus and the last 22 years here on Sydfyn. In Århus, I have worked with painting at the art college in Mejlgade and had my first exhibition in 1999. Here in Sydfyn, I have received personal instruction from Birger Møller for several years, who i is a former employee at the Art Academy in Aarhus.
I am primarily painting abstract landscape paintings. The Faroe Islands have settled in me, after several visits up there, and from that, the Nordic style often comes to the fore. Technically, I often use a lot of water in both acrylic and gouache, which can then form several thin layers.
Art review
Kirsten Overgaard is captivated by the Nordic nature and has found her own special expression and way of depicting the Nordic landscapes. Nature is an eternal source of her inspiration, and you sense the special connection she has with nature. The motifs are far-sighted and stand strong and dynamic with hints of the landscape. With an energetic and intense color palette, Kirsten Overgaard paints with gouache the many variations that the Nordic nature offers. She often paints out in nature both here at home and on the Faroe Islands, and gets her impressions and emotional sensations very close to her, and her first-rate considerations of what is seen, the changing weather conditions, light and shadow effects, give life to images and a natural flow emerges in the movements .
Kirsten Overgaard's acrylic pictures balance in terms of structure between simplicity and complexity. She makes it look playfully easy, but each stroke has a great importance for the overall impression and is not placed randomly. The image surface dissolves with rough abstract strokes. The composition is like a pattern of angular and cubist lines and surfaces that move in different directions and mark the structure and shape of the landscape. As a viewer, you are challenged to look at the subject as a whole, as you do not get the perfect landscape all at once.
Kirsten Overgaard makes us feel that we are part of her unique experiences in nature. You experience a special joy of expression and a great desire for painting, and it clearly shines through that she puts emotions into her subjects and conveys with great conviction the intense and beautiful experiences that nature enriches her with.
©By Kirsten-Marie Hedeland, art reviewer at Kunstavisen and TV presenter at Kultur-Kanalen, December 2020
