Barbara Henkes
2.-28.8.2026
Kemijärven Kulttuurikeskus
Hietaniemenkatu 5
98100 Kemijärvi
FINLAND
Avoinna Ma-Pe 9.00-16.00 & tapahtumien aikaan.
Vapaa sisäänpääsy.
Avajaiset 1.8. klo 18-20
Tervetuloa!
Open Ma-Fri 9.00-16.00 & during events.
Free entry.
Private View 1.8. 18-20
All welcome!
Of People and Flowers
The exhibition in Rovaniemi includes a series of portraits, mainly done in soft pastels, and some in oils. I love to work from observation: the naked eye sees much more colours and nuance in life, then the camera sees when it produces a photo. When I paint from life, I’m very aware of the person’s character, or, when it’s a bunch of flowers, the life and serendipity of the different flowers together. It’s this energy that makes me want to paint them.
I work mainly in soft pastels and oils. Soft pastels allow me to work both quickly, when it’s more like drawing with colours, and slowly, when I use them to put layer upon layer, which is a painting technique.
The portraits in this exhibition were painted a different speeds. There are portraits from life models which were done within a time span of two hours. There are also portraits which I painted from a photo, sometime fast and other times more elaborate and detailed. Lastly, there are some portraits that I do in a five or six minutes, and for which pastel is a perfect medium, as you can quickly put down broad ‘strokes’ of colours (with the long side of the pastel stick), and layer them to give the portrait more depth. The wild flower stilllifes are usually more detailed, although I’m limited by the time the flowers survive in a vase after I have picked them.
In my mind the portraits of people and flowers talk to each other. Or rather, the people, deeply longing for the beauty of wild nature, talk to the flowers. The flowers remain indifferent to the people.
