7D

7d

7D is a portrait painting of Mads Peder Nordbo, the crime fiction author. For the first portrait session Mads showed up with various clothes to wear. Much to his own relief, we quickly agreed that the formal wear neither made sense to him nor people near to him. We decided to go for his ‘signature style’. With few exceptions, he wears shirts and knitted jumpers all year round.

The background is the interior of a building in Kangerluarsoruseq (Færingehavn) Greenland. Today it is a spooky and abandoned place. Below you can watch some drone footage from the site). In Mads’ fertile mind it conveniently doubled up as a murder scene in one of his crime novels. You might sense the hard arctic light, combined with darkness of a place that is dank interior, floorboards are beginning to rot, and where the paintwork is pealing off. We have not quite gone all the way to chiaroscuro on his own left. But we have kept the eye and eye socket quite dark and the other side lit more naturally. You can achieve this with lamps and reflectors quite easily and for this work it seemed appropriate.

The work on the portrait painting of Mads Peder Nordbo was a collaboration. We had a few fun conversations and a part of getting a portrait right is to spend enough time together. It creates a relaxed atmosphere where the sitters look more themselves or rather how they look most of the time. In addition, you capture more their likeness and character. Again the extra depth might be gained over a longer period— something which is harder to achieve by taking a quick photograph, say.

You can view other portraits here.

Title/Titel/Titel/Títolo #7D, (Mads Peder Nordbo), Acrylic and oil on canvas/ Akryl und Öl auf Leinwand/Akryl og olie på lærred/acrílico e óleo sobre tela 80x100cm, Year/Jahr/År/Ano 2018, anders dyhr.

Watch how this was painted.

In addition, consider having a look at another portrait of Mads.

7D
Mads Peder Nordbo

Drone footage from the abandoned Kangerluarsoruseq (Færingehavn), Greenland.