When we reach Linnea on the phone she answers cheerfully before the call is interrupted. The network reception is bad and we barely hear her. She is out in the country-side, or the woodlands to be more correct. The place is Ljusdal in Hälsingland, a four-hour car drive away from Stockholm.
She moved here a year ago with her boyfriend to focus on her art. They are both artists who wants to find the right focus. Here they spend everyday life among chickens and dogs. On each side of the house, they have their own studio where they are work on their separate creations.
"It's very peaceful to stay here, but also very different from living in town. We wish to try it for a while, nothing is written in stone. You are allowed to do whatever the hell you want" she tells me.
A typical day for Linnea begins at 8am in the morning. She eats breakfast and walk to the studio where she locks herself in until its time for dinner, with the exception of a quick lunch break. Her boyfriend has an identical routine. Then they eat dinner and go to bed.
"When you are in Stockholm you meet so many people during the day and then you end up going out drinking beer. Out here we don't have a choice. Our work becomes very concentrated. There is not much else to do. But it also requires great responsibility to get it done".
Linnea Rygaard is originally from Gothenburg, but moved to Stockholm when she started her art degree at the Royal Institute of Art. Last year, still at school, she took part in an a group exhibition at ANNAELLEGALLERY. She graduated last spring and got picked up by the gallery Cecilia Hillström.
Perspectives is the main component in Linneas pantings which are often huge, mostly in the size of 240 x 240 cm. The images are rooms rather than people - it is far from being figurative.
"I want the painting to be something more than a painting. Not only a window or a picture in itself. Instead, an entrance into something else. I work a lot with what perspective do with the viewer. It manipulates the viewer", says Linnea who is currently working hard for her forthcoming solo exhibition with Cecilia Hillström, opening on 6 of April.
"This exhibition will be a bit different from what I usually do. The paintings are smaller than before and also in different colours. They feel like Norrland (northern Sweden), if one can say so. It will be exciting to see what happens in the room".
"In the painting process of making the work everything goes pretty quickly" she says. A painting can take anywhere from a week to a month. But most importantly, nothing should appear perfect.
"It's important for me that the paintings aren't too polished and perfect. I want the painting to feel honest and not to plastered. In the distance the paintings look very geometric and perfect but as you get closer to it you can see the speed and the honest feeling".
Linnea will certainly be present on 6 April at the gallery. Come and get closer look at her paintings at Hälsingegatan 43.
