SINAS SCHMIDT: @SINASSCHMIDT

What do you want to say about your work?

I want my work first and foremost to bring joy and curiosity to people. I'm interested in paint and these special moments it gives us- sometimes you just get these really special marks that make sense and really hit. I could look at them all day, from all different angles. They take me out of my head. I'm always searching for them. It is this child-like curiosity I love about painting, so I hope I can pass that on to the people that look at my things, so they get lost in the marks and get excited about exploring too, In the same way, that I've felt that in the making.

My work is a lot of reflection.

On memories, on feelings, on relationships of all sorts - interhuman relationships, love, hate, longing, looking back. The relationships between people and their environments, humans and the earth. Endings and beginnings, cycles. I just paint all the things that come with being. I see everything as one, so I aim to achieve a sense of wholeness and unity in my work. Painting is quite like meditating on certain subjects of life, but on a different level that's not as simply expressed verbally- hence the need to paint about it- its own language.

How has your work developed throughout your career?

My work is constantly changing and developing. Often it feels that every piece I make is a big stepping stone that moves me onto something fully new- everything is constant flux. I think the biggest change in my work has been that I've gotten less particular and precious about it. That's probably the best advice I've gotten- one of my very wise and amazing tutors told me to not be precious about painting, to just paint and send it without thinking. That's really changed everything for me. I don't want to put any expectations on the works, I like to not think about what's gonna happen, there is no way they have to look like anymore. I let go of the urge to control everything. They're free to be whatever. I've gained so much more trust in the process.