Per Bentley

I have painted all my life. Art, architecture and design give me a deeper sense of joy and well-being and are both daily in my heart and they also spread appreciation in my surroundings. It gives me freedom, and makes me feel free to go to art shows and enjoy and learn all about the colors that matter so much. I am very impressed by other artists, that succeed and I do often find both inspiration and source in developing my own painting.

To me, painting is like experimenting. I paint with very strong intense colors inspired from nature and I often depict the reality that I see. My motives are often chosen from nature as there are so many experiences that need to be painted and experienced. But also viewed and interpreted by others. I often work with a lot of oil paint to create shifts and shades in my paintings, which gives a fantastic shine to the painting. I think it is important to have harmony show in the painting where all colours highlight the subject and in some cases "beautify" reality. If you get the right colour combination, ie when all the colours fit together it is equal to a piece of music that everyone loves. For me, although the colours are very important, the motive is also there as part of an important experience from reality.

I experience the freedom, the independence, the colours of life that gives me a wonderful feeling of well-being when painting.

I started painting with lead at the age of 6 and then I developed my painting, and started painting with watercolour. I have painted both a lot of portraits, and also various figurative motives. But lately I have completely fallen into oil painting. I experimented with different techniques, such as to paint with a knife and then try oil pastels and learn to get some "life" in my paintings. This is a very good technique, among others when bringing flower that are still, to fully living flowers. To get direct light shifts in the paintings, I stuck to strong bright colours to get a large extent.

Recently I have also started working with digital painting technology and collage.