This section contains pieces created with inspiration from one of my great loves: ballet. Everything from the aesthetics, the sculptural beauty of a ballerina or a ballet dancer, the hard work and the dedication behind, have always appealed strongly to me. How can something seem so tender, fragile and beautiful at the same time contain such power and strength, sweat and tears? Not to mention all the emotion a ballet performance evokes…simply irresistable!
“Jana”, water colour 2021
The painting “Jana” above, was made after a photoshoot with my ballet teacher at the time, Jana Schulz (Jonasson). Ballet turned out to be one of my essential lifelines after my husband Ulf had suddenly passed away in 2019. Ballet gave me structure in my life, gave me something else to think about and was very helpful with the physical exercises and challenges that also helped me with the mental and emotional bits of my new life. Jana came to be the dancer/model in many of my pieces.
“Jana, sitting”, water colour 2021
“Jana – The Tutu”, oil 2023
“The Cage”, water colour 2012
This painting, “The Cage”, was the first ballet themed painting I made after my long artistic break between 1994 – 2006. It became very popular and sold very well as fine art giclée prints and small reproductions. The ballerina, starting a pirouette, is “breaking free” from the imaginary, crinoline-like steel construction. I also hid some equations (rotational energy), referring to my background as civil engineer. The ballerina in this painting is Alexandra Danilova in the role of Odette in Swan Lake.
“The Cloud”, water colour 2018
“The Cloud” has its inspiration from the Roman God Jupiter (Zeus in Greek) seducing Io in the disguise of a cloud. The ballerina in this painting is Nina Novak and Jupiter is modeld after Leon Danielian.
“The Swan”, water colour 2020
This painting, “The Swan” in black and white water colour, is of course based on one of the legendary photographs of iconic ballerina Anna Pavlova, the original model for the swan princess in white, Odette in Swan Lake. Pavlova adored swans and created the slender and fragile version of Odette in especially her performance of the dying swan, with choreography by Michel Fokine. Her interpretation of this role expressed the fragility of life and the painful beauty and the intensity of the middleground between life and death.
My painting had hardly dried before it got a new owner and this motive is still very popular.
“Luiza”, water colour 2026
When I started visiting The Royal Opera in Stockholm and the wonderful ballet performances there, I soon came to notice one very charismatic and brilliant ballerina. It was Luiza Lopes, whom I´ve since then seen in many different roles and countless times at this opera house and even elsewhere. Once I even had the privilege to dance for her at a ballet summer intensive, a fond memory. I´m proud to tell that this painting is now owned by Luiza Lopes herself. The reference photo for this painting is taken at The Royal Opera, at one of the performances of Don Quixote, possibly one I was attending…
Susanna Holmén Waris 