Je pense, donc je suis

JE PEINS, DONC JE VIS

In the beginning,

I painted what I saw

Then,

I painted what I felt

Now,

I paint what I am.....

My work is deeply rooted in the dialogue between two worlds: Europe and Southeast Asia. This dual heritage, paired with a lifelong devotion to museums and galleries, forms the foundation of my visual language. While I spent the first chapter of my life as a consultant physician, art has been my constant companion since childhood.

Though largely an autodidact, my technical evolution has been shaped by a global network of mentors. From my earliest art teachers in school to the artists who guided me during my years in Japan, and later influences in Thailand and Europe, my education has been a nomadic, mostly hands-on apprenticeship.

After transitioning to art full-time, my focus evolved from the tangible to the contemplative. My early works centered on the natural world—landscapes, seascapes, and portraiture—but has since shifted toward the evocative. Today, I create paintings inspired by Japanese poetry, improvised works that blend realism with abstraction, and pieces that explore the absurdities of life and the internal landscapes of the mind.

I prioritize capturing the essence of a memory or an idea over rigid stylistic consistency.

Due to a sensitivity to solvents, I work primarily in acrylics and mixed media, yet I feel in no way limited.

WON the Award for Painting at the “London Art Biennale” 2025.

Perhaps it will be, that today’s troubles one day, are sweet memories. What I used to call sorrows, I now remember with joy.

With a footprint spanning the US, Southeast Asia and Europe, my work was recently featured in the 2025 London Art Biennale, where I was honoured with the award for painting.

Kväll på Kallskär.jpg — Kallskär, Stockholm archipelago (70x100cm)

Rainstorm at Söderarm lighthouse (100x100cm)

More archipelago paintings

Autumn evening gale, Sea of Åland, northern Baltic Sea. (80x100cm)

**Morning in outer skerries (100x120cm)**

Arctic terns in the Baltic Sea in a fresh gale near Sälskär’s lighthouse.(120 x 100 cm)

NOVEMBER 2020

Paintings after 4 japanese “waka” poems

(100x120 cm)

perhaps it will be, that today’s troubles one day, will be sweet memories. What I used to call sorrows, I now remeber with joy.
beneath a summer sky, invisible waves moving, on a tranquil sea. So peaceful - Still I worry, suddenly it may perish.
a heartless farewell, as the early morning moon, entered the room. since that depressing moment, daybreaks fill my heart with pain.
does it worry me? the storm ripping flowers like snow, from the cherry tree. when it is i who suffers, from the snow of age in my hair.

2021 - 2022 BIRD PAINTINGS

1 + 2; Yellowed legged gull (100x50cm)+(70x100m). 3; North Atlantic Gannet (70x100cm). 4; Great Lappland owl (Strix Lapponica) (100x120cm)

5. Herons (90x120cm) 6: snowy owl (90x120cm) 7: eagle owl (90x120cm)

APRIL 2021

Natalie Maneerat 120 x 100 cm, acrylics. Worked on this painting in periods Nov. 20 - April.21

(100 x 100 cm)

For every step I take,

One less will remain,

Leaves already aumn red.

As water flows from the hills,

Until the ocean it fills.

(100 x 120 cm)

My son has cancer,

so what can I do, but to give him my hand,

and fill it with love and care, and the hope I have,

I share

(80 x 100 cm)

My big brother - my hero

ABSURD PAINTINGS 2022-2023

These paintings start with painting the canvas in just one saturated colour and then adding anything that comes to my mind. I have made some rules for myself: Must contain abstract and realistic elements, one or more birds, strong colours and have an absurd tone. Why titles in French?

(100 x 100 cm)

Cher fils, qu’as-tu fait ?

(90 x 120 cm)

D'où vient le salut?

(90 x 120 cm)

Regarde geppetto, regarde! Une hirondelle

ACRYLICS 90 x 120 cm

MICKEY EST TRES CONTENT

(90 x 120 cm)

“companions” en danger

acrylics 90 x 1200 cm started as an Improvised painting but…

whoopper swan

Haiku poem by Kobayashi Issa, ca. 1800

This world, grief and pain,

the cherry tree is blooming

even so.

Acrylics (120 x 90 cm

BEARDED REEDLINGS

dreams (are for the living) - MOEMOEA (no te feia ora)

I was inspired by Gauguin’s painting Manaò Tupapaú (Spirits of the dead watching, a painting that has fascinated me since my youth, hence the Tahitian title. The spirits of death in the original work have here been replaced with a cardinal bird, symbolizing the precense of loving angels.

is it all pointless?

The hand of death may move the wood,

And claim the King where once he stood,

The board is cleared, the shadows fall,

Yet, life returns to wake us all.

Antonius Block: “No man can live faced with death knowing everythings nothingness”. Death: “Most people reflect neither on death nor nothingness”.

"Inspired by the lasting impact of Bergman's The Seventh Seal on my teenage self, this painting explores the existential struggle between light and darkness, life and death. I place myself in the role of the crusader Antonius Block, facing a faceless Death. The Eurasian Goldfinch—representing life and resurrection—shares the scene with a hidden Bergman and his 'daemons' in the rocks, while Yukio Mishima's death poem,barely visible, haunts the dark clouds.

Acrylics 100 x 100 cm

WOMAN WITH PURPLE HAT AND GOLDEN EARRING

I was commissioned to make this portrait in the style of Vermer’s “Girl with a pearl earring” but with artistic freedom and another model, my wife.

the fire station behind my house

I started this painting in the autumn a few years ago but left for a warmer place to spend the winter. When I returned I discovered that a scaffolding had already been erected and renovation work had begun. Luckily i found some photos fromthe previous year with the worn windows and damaged plaster. Some tears ago I had decided to include birds in all my paintings, hence the two magpies that I often see there.

Acrylics 100x100 cm An improvised painting

Longue comme le queue du faisan….

As does the pheasant,

when the day ends also I

will go to my rest.

Long as the pheasant cock’s tail

will the hours of my night be.

Hiemaru, ca. 700 ad.

october 7th

Acrylics 100 x 100 cm

For whoever touches you touches the apple of his eye. ZECH 2:8

In memory of innocent Israelis and Thai farmworkers killed by Hamas terrorists October 7th, 2023. I was of course upset by this and decided to later make a painting based on “hate, evil and the forces of darkness”.

POP ART PAINTINGS

Comment on POP art 1.

It started as an improvised painting that simply chose to become pop art. So I incorporated art from various Pop artists* as well as made my own version of Campbell's tomato soup can with an obligatory bird. The quote is Dali's but applies to me as well. Satisfied with the result I decided to make two more paintings in the “Pop Art“ genre on the theme of romantic love and friendship.

* Roy Lichtenstein, Christopher Wool, Robert Indiana, Edward Ruscha, KAW, Jeff Koon, Mark Rothko, keith haring.

Acrylics 90 x 120 cm

COMMENT ON POPART 2: EROS

ACRYLICS 90 x 120 cm

COMMENTS ON POP ART 3: FILIA

Quottes from Albert Camus and Shakespeare

וַיָּשֶׁר ה' הִשְׁמֵךְ עָלָיו אֶת-עֲוֻנָּנוּ כֻּלָּנוּ

And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

acrylics 100 x 100 cm

I will be what I will be

אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר אֶֽהְיֶ֑ה

The crucifiction of Christ with a Sefirot.

Acrylic 100 x 100 cm Poem by Japanese poet Yosa Buson, 1716-84

IKIRU, To live

“A limited time

Contemplating my life

In autumn darkness”

"What began as an improvisation quickly evolved into a painting of a stork—a symbol of birth—prompting reflections on a life that is, while limited in time, filled with moments that feel eternal. Akira Kurosawa's Ikiru, (To live), is a favorite film of mine, particularly the iconic swing scene, which absolutely had to be included. Inspired by Buson’s haiku poem regarding the volatility of life, I was reminded of a line from another film,The Bucket List, describing the retrospective view of one's existence: 'Like smoke through a keyhole.'"

acrylic 100 x 100 cm Painting after a haiku poem by kobayashi issa

“Pure simplicity

marks the arrival of spring

like the morning fog”

Acrykics 100 x 100 cm Haiku poem by Issa written after his daughter died from smallpox:

“This world of dewdrops

this fleeting world of dewdrops

and yet… and yet”

Acrylics 100 x 100 cm painting after a Waka poem by Kumanoyama

Past the drifting leaves,

Though the autumn heart runs deep,

Yet there is a light,

Returning once again,

To days woken from their sle

Acrylics, graphite, coal. 100x100 cm.

MISHIMA

For over a year, capturing Yukio Mishima in a portrait remained a dormant ambition, its conceptual execution proving elusive.

During my studies in Tokyo, I immersed myself in his oeuvre and shared the contemporary expectation that he would be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature—a distinction that ultimately eluded him, arguably due to his reactionary politics.

Mishima’s 1970 ritual suicide by seppuku profoundly unsettled both the Japanese public and me. Only after further reading, biographical study, and a review of archival interviews did a cohesive vision materialize.

The resulting work integrates key textual elements from his final moments: his death poem (jisei), found where he died, and his parting note, rendered as it was discovered upon his desk. Mishima as a boy and his possessive grandmother are also depicted. The Eurasian goldfinch symbolizes resurrection and eternal life, accompanied by the musical stave of Bach’s "Komm, süsser Tod."

Acrylics. 100x100 cm painting after a poem by Kaga no Chiyo

“The cranes are playing,

flying high, up to the clouds,

The year’s first day”

ACRYLICS 100 X 100 CM POEM BY KUMANOYAMA

“A clear winter night,

so many stars, and beyond…..

Eternity”

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

GENESIS

Genesis 1:1-2. With wisdom God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

ACRYLICS 100 x 100 CM "THE SPIRIT OF GOD WAS HOVERING…”

Genesis 1:3-4. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.

ACRYLICS 100 x 100 CM. “LET THERE BE LIGHT”

Genesis 1:5 “And there was evening (chaos), and there was morning (order), day one.”

ACRYLICS 100 x100 CM. “AND THERE WAS EVENING,”

ACRYLICS 100 x 100 CM. “AND THERE WAS MORNING; DAY ONE”.

Duality in Bionantism

portRait of Björn Ranelid, author

“My stories are migratory birds in search of a warm place

and I will not give up until they find a home in your heart”

Photos

I started taking photographs at the age of 6 or 7 with my father's double-eyed Rolleiflex and later his Voigtländer Vito. When I lived and studied economics in Japan in my youth I was able to buy my first SLR, a Minolta with 3 lenses. I have mostly done nature and landscape photography and my cameras are always my companions on hikes, climbs or kayak trips. My wish for the futures is to use photography more to tell stories about people who cross my path besides capturing nice scenes in nature and near or far-away places. My years as an anaesthesiologist have given me a unique opportunity to photo-document work in the operating ward and theatres and I plan to have an exhibition in the future letting others share this environment.