Francien Krieg - Mutual weight

Mutual weight
80 x 60 cm oil on panel / 0.6 cm thick

To the future owner

In the figures there is a lot of structure and layering. The skin is built up from several layers of blue, gray-green, lilac and pink, with earlier brushstrokes and color fields still visible. In some places the paint is thin and transparent, while around the faces, foreheads, shoulders and hands it is applied thicker and more tangible. This makes the skin change with the viewing distance: from afar the bodies appear soft and almost luminous, up close the painted surface is most visible.
Light that falls obliquely across the canvas best shows the height differences in the paint. The small lighter touches on the foreheads, noses, lips and shoulders catch the light, while other layers of paint recede into blue and gray. Frontal lighting can make the texture flatter; a window or lamp from the side gives the work more depth.
Against a light wall the contrast with the dark background becomes stronger. In a darker space the figures seem to slowly emerge from the background. Cool daylight emphasizes the blue and green layers; under warmer evening light the pink skin tones and the touch become softer.
Mutual Weight is about proximity as a form of bearing. It remains unclear who gives support and who receives it. One figure leans, the other holds on, but their weight has become mutual. The visible layers of paint reinforce that idea: the bodies do not consist of a single closed skin, but of layers that carry each other.

I enjoy painting portraits of young men and adolescents because there is something special visible in that life phase: a vulnerability that has not yet been hardened by the world. Their faces and bodies carry an ambiguity within them – they are not yet fully formed, but full of promise and possibilities. It is precisely that in-between moment that interests me: no longer a child, not yet a man. In that transition lies a beauty I want to capture, the openness of what can still become and the fragile sense that this stage lasts only briefly.

All series – from self-portraits and aging bodies to young male boxers, women at sunset and intimate scenes with cats – can be found on my website, where you can also read more about my background and motivations:
www.francienkrieg.com

I work exclusively with high-quality materials: professionally prepared linen or smooth panels, and oil paint of top quality, rich in pigment. Each work is made with care and dedication – intended to endure for a long time, not only in material but also in meaning.