Ocean Paintings - An ongoing project sins 2010

First oil paint was mixed to emulate the colors reflected on the water surface. The paint was then poured onto the same surface directly off the boat or shore. Being oil it wouldn‘t dissolve but instead formed a thin, translucent film over the surface. Then paper sheets were placed on top of these spills and allowed to soak up the colors. The resulting «prints» then left to dry. The most striking thing about Lennartssons ephemeral printing-technique is the way it mirrors the ocean‘s surface with an almost Trompe l‘oeil accuracy. This unmediated transposing of surface, via the oil color onto the paper, is the ocean painting itself.

This mirroring (painting/printing) of what is itself a sort of primeval mirror (the ocean), is interesting in the context of subjecthood: Lennartsson of course instigates and gives form to the process by making the necessary preparations, mixing colors etc., but they are not in any significant way involved in the actual mark making. The ocean does the work, like a hired assistant. Here, by dissociating from the interpretative function involved in conveying sensory input, the subject sets up the process of mimesis as an automatism. They, supine - with sheets of paper floating around their little boat, becoming images - is an image also, the image of leisure.