SPHERE's Winter Edition Has Launched! Meet the Artist Behind the Cover

For my first SPHERE cover the underlying story I created for myself… is that the hero is a person who works in the city but who seeks the peace in the countryside. But he also enjoys to invite his friends to a proper party.

I started this job by taking… some reference photos of a person holding a magazine, to make sure the pose worked. I then drew the house based on an ordinary two-point perspective. I put it all together and then it was time to go digital. This is a lengthy process where I try out different colour palettes and move things around to see what works best. At the end of the process I dropped the party goers in place.

My process for selecting the specific colours in each of my works is always informed by… a few favourite palettes but this is one that is a mix of several palettes. I was looking for something that felt wintery but still with some warmth in it.

The building I would most like to draw that I haven’t yet is the brand new 111 West 57th Street in New York.

My favourite artist of all time is… I am not able to pinpoint one single artist but I was quite moved when I visited the Joan Miró Foundation in Barcelona years ago. As I recall there were two big canvases in the last room of the exhibition. They both featured a thin black line painted. I have no idea what it stood for but I like to think that those were his last paintings and that he had concentrated all his art and life wisdom to those two black lines. It’s probably not true but it would be great if it was. As for designers, I am very much into Dieter Rams, the German industrial designer behind Vitsœ shelving.

If you are visiting Stockholm, I recommend avoiding the old town.. while it is certainly charming it can be crowded. Rather, I would recommend visiting SoFo in Södermalm, a small area  with a lot of restaurants, bars, cafés and independent boutiques. If hipsters are still a thing, this is where you will find them. Then I would take a short boat trip to the Djurgården island, it is very peaceful and beautiful park area. Many of the museums are situated here but you can just enjoy the environment and the view. If you feel like visiting my neighbourhoods, I would recommend the Woodland Cemetery, with unique landscape design and architecture, listed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The highlight of my career so far has to be…I have one coming up but I am not allowed to talk about that yet. But I have been fortunate enough to work on some great projects with some great people. I recently designed some handmade rugs for a German company, I also did a project for Jaguar in Germany that ended with a group exhibition in Munich. I got to know the other artists and I am happy to call them my friends after all these years.

To do my job, I can’t do without… Music, coffee and my MacBook Pro.

The last book I downloaded... is a historic novel, The Battle that Shook Europe: Poltava and the birth of the Russian Empire by Swedish historian and author Peter Englund. I don’t know why I put myself through that right now but I have taken up an interest in history lately. I also listen to a lot of football podcasts.

This Christmas I will be… celebrating with the family and eat all that Swedish Christmas food that we have been preparing for weeks. In the afternoon we will drink some glögg (mulled and spiced wine), my own ginger bread based on my mother’s recipe and saffron bread. In the evening we will light a fire and eat different kinds of pickled herring, gravlax and homemade meatballs and a bunch of other things. (I actually only eat meat on Christmas Eve.)

The new edition of SPHERE is available here.