Journal · Interview
Ingrid Solberg: Beginning Again
A conversation about returning after a five-year pause, choosing an uncompromising orange ground and letting earlier decisions remain visible.
Marta Lind: After five years away from painting, what made you begin again?
Ingrid Solberg: It started with an empty room. I borrowed a boathouse for the winter and planned only to make it usable. Before long I had stretched a canvas on the floor. The pause had been real, but the impulse had not disappeared.
ML: Why does orange sit beneath every new work?
IS: It never behaves like a neutral base. Whatever comes next has to meet it directly. I wanted the first decision to remain active all the way through the painting.
ML: The graphite structure is still easy to trace in places.
IS: Those lines are the record of how I found the image. I sketch architecture, objects and the day’s proportions, then cover most of it with oil. What stays visible shows where the painting resisted being simplified.
After the First Light is presented in Stockholm through 18 July. The accompanying catalogue is available at both gallery desks.
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