Hans Strom - Birdie

Hans Strom, Artist from Motala in Sweden. I have worked with artistic activities most of my life. Educated at a business school with a focus on graphics. Four years of distance education at the Famous Artist School in West Port Connecticut USA. Employed as a graphic designer, illustrator and retoucher for four years. Self-employed as an advertising producer with artistic activities.

Today I work a lot with an unusual art form called Basso Relievo, low relief in my own studio in Motala. I have developed my own way of expression based on the reliefs that were created during Antiquity and use it in the form of Contemporary Art and also as portraits in relief. I mostly use a white ceramic air-drying clay that I apply to a solid wood base. After drying, I paint with oil paint in thin lasing layers to emphasize the depth and intensity of the images. It creates a fictional 3D work by the incident light creating a certain shadow effect on the subject.

Over the years I have participated in many exhibitions in Sweden and a few other countries, including Denmark and Italy. I was nominated as an invited exhibitor for the New York ArtFair but the pandemic put a stop to that. Currently working on a historical exhibition with Viking art where my relief portraits of Vikings occupy a large place.
See: https://nordicculture.se / and www.hansbilder.se
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Relief painting is an art form that blurs the line between traditional painting and sculpture. Instead of simply painting on a flat surface, I build up height and structure so that the subject physically stands out from the background.
Basso relievo, better known in Swedish as lågreliéf, is an artistic technique in which the carved or modeled figures stand out only slightly from the background.
The term comes from the Italian basso (low) and relievo (relief/elevation).
The main characteristic of basso relievo is that the subject maintains its connection with the background surface. • Depth: The figures are projected with less than 50% of their actual volume. Detail: The technique often allows for very fine details that resemble drawing or graphics, but in three dimensions.