=nellis-eketorp


Full Name:Nellis Eketorp
Residence: currently Poland (not for long, moving soon)
Education: post-grad
Art education/self-trained: self-trained but post-grad studies related to art
Current profession: "freelancer"
Favorite artists: Susan Seddon-Boulet, Albrecht Dürer, Tomasz S?towski, Michael Möbius, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Hieronymus Bosch, Paul Kidby, Zdzis?aw Beksi?ski, Dorian Cleavenger, Larry Elmore, Boris Vallejo,... actually lots of them
Literature type preferred: cynical Terry Pratchett's novels in a relation to grotesque; magic realism; allegory; fantasy; naturalism; mythical; anthropological (in a scientific way)
Website: [link]
Expression that defines you best: pure narcotic, very sarcastic one
Expression that defines your art best: uhmm fiery(?), it's usually symbolic or oneiric
How do you feel about this interview? Questioning! Lights at my face!





1.What style or category would you like your work to be considered? Gothic? (~jhawklyn)

I support my own style of art. I actually don't want my art to be considered the part of a specific category or style. Just the art of Nellis. My arts are usually individual products of my brain. When I paint I don't think about the style or category. I just want to paint what I want to paint. I think I'm still looking for new techniques, effects, styles. This process isn't ended yet. Someday I will find that "right thing" and as far as I know myself I'll abandon it and start to look for something new. The routine doesn't exist to me - at least I hope so. I'm like a chariot: "always forward". So if there is a style which can be considered my style it's certain it will be changed soon. I can't stay in the one place because it means I'd start to reverse. Not my thing. Really. Nelly is an explorer. There's the one thing which can describe my art: "passion".
And "gothic" - well... thank you but no, thank you I don't want my art to be considered gothic, that thing isn't possible for some reasons and it will never be.

2.When was the turning point in your artistic carreer and what was the release factor to make you create art?(*Lilyas)

"Artistic career" hmm it's too much said sai, Lily, heh. I'be been painting ever since I remember and art was always an important thing in my home considering the fact my dad is an artist and my mother is also looking for her ways to express herself as an artist. When I was a kid they were always giving me pens, crayons or pencils instead of toys hehe. The turning point in my painting was about 8 months ago when I've finished the "Follow me" picture. I can't say why. It just happened and I started to paint different things than previously. I think I've become more mature, more self-confident about painting especially about my own errors and mistakes, my imperfection which I want to leave as it is. Yes, the perfection is related to my nature but in details. I don't want to make art extremely perfect because it would look like a photo. Not my thing. I started to be perfect but only with adding details, small almost unnoticeable things which you have to find by yourself. With creating the "Follow me" pic I started to think about painting much more and to paint what I wanted to without any relation to other people. I started to think rather about WHAT to paint than HOW to paint. The most important thing I've learnt to do was painting with my heart and soul. That thing I want to do.

3. Do you have a personal favourite among your art works and what does it mean to you? What personal meaning has the Phoenix for you? (*Lilyas )

I think there are my 3 favourite arts: "Follow me" because it took some time for me to make it and I'm satisfied with this art completely. And the second one is "The Berserker" but there are some personal reasons heh Actually I treat my paintings like my own kids. They're all the part of me because I am in each of them. My emotions, my feelings, my thoughts are in them. There's something I want to tell through them all but it can't be said directly. Just discover that! My current the-most-personal-art is "Aestus Aeternus", perhaps the most surreal painting in my entire gallery but completely in a positive way. It's a metaphorical representation of my strength. Nothing more nothing less. Everything in this art piece tells the story about me. A very interesting colourful story but... not for all ears.

The Phoenix is the spirit I have identified myself with for a few years. His nature is luring to me, especially the ability to burn itself and to rise from the ashes, stronger than before. It embodies the aspect of my strength and experience. It's something which gives me my self-confidence and makes me more resistant for some unpleasant events. It also gives me lots of hope and makes me able to do anything I want. Thanks to this I can handle everything. It's like the icon of myself and my faith.

4. I would very much like to know how your spirituality has affected your art. Are there spiritual dimensions to art in your opinion, in that case what and how does it apply?(~Ceriadwen)

My spirituality and spiritual aspects of life are some kind of distinguishing marks of my art. Almost each thing I paint is related to spirituality, especially when I paint some mythological scenes. And surely you can find many spiritual references in each image I painted. But it's your task to make some afterthought. Spiritual dimensions make art more vivid, place deeper senses into it,make it something more than illustrations. That's why it's so important to me. I think the spiritual aspect is visible in paintings related to my dreams or dreams of my friends. I can say my art is connected with something primal and that primal thing is in each of my paintings. Maybe it's something which Georges Dumézil called mana which allows people to recognize some spiritual activities. I can say I'm looking for the spiritual aspect of sacrum somehow, my own sacrum - I'm doing this painting mythological art. I can say I inherited spirituality from myths and sagas and I'm able to hand them down to people by painting them.

5.Where do you draw inspiration from? Is it a single thing for one work? Multiple things? Or is it just random ideas?(=ProsePetals)

My inspirations... Well usually they're dreams I had or my friends had. Dreams are like the "well without the bottom" to have some ideas and inspirations for painting. But usually there's a problem to paint everything I saw in a dream. Too many things! Also I look for inspirations in mythology related to my faith and in personal experiences that I want to paint in a symbolic way. There is a large amount of pics which are made just because of the moment and many of them aren't submited here. I just imagine the painting inside my head for a second or it just comes into my head from somewhere and then there's a huge enlightenment like: "I wanna paint that!" And I sit down, take the tablet and start to paint. In a connection with all those things my paintings seem to be more oneiric / somnambulistic than symbolic. I think it's good, it's the part of my self-realization and my own style.


6. What kind of mood do you need to get in to feel stimulated to create art? (*ihatemonday)

Believe me or not but... I'm usually pissed off Really!That thing makes me paint faster and more in a shorter period of time. I paint in a fury. When I'm pissed the ideas come into my head like flashes. Hard to remember them all. I tried to write them all down. It doesn't work. After 3 or 4 I forget the rest. What a pity And you don't want to hear me when I'm painting. I ensure you. There is too much swearing and growling heh. To be honest also the love and moods related to love make me more creative. I'm really inspired then. More like in a trance. Effective thing If you want me to paint instantly, light the candle or set the fire to the wood in the fireplace. Fire is a great inspiration to me.


7.Are there any recurrent symbols in your work? What is the message that you want sent out through them?

Yes, apparently the one recurrent symbol is Fire. But it's very personal. I consider myself pyro and I can't live without fire. You can find many candles, incenses, matches etc. in my personal space. I love Fire and its untamed wild nature. It's my life force if I may say. It inspires me. My messages, that important messages are usually hidden in my paintings. Sometimes I give hints in my descriptions but I want you to interpret. To find yourself in the piece of art. To take an attitude towards my art. It's good to find out something more about my art when I know perceptions of other people. If they're personal and kindly said of course. I don't like "cool art!" comments. Especially when it's related to my fiery pics LOL


8. Painting-a few “hows”, directly from Nellis:

***Do you do any kind of research before starting a new piece?

I avoid using photo references or stocks. Sometimes I read about costumes and for example jewelry before I start to paint. I don't want to make any mistake in case of some historical stuff. The rest of things flows from my imagination. Gods' representations are usually my own but information about them I have from the sources I look up (I read a lot and create my own opinion about each part of the world: real, spiritual, mental etc.), I don't use information from the Internet. It's not a reliable source to me. And usually my life-experience is the kind of my research if I may say. I don't want to copy old standards and I'm fighting with closing myself in any kind of template. If there's a frame around me, I burn the frame. I want my things to be entirely my own.

***What tools do you use? Are they traditional or digital, and do you have a preferred medium? (`onestar )

I mainly use digital tools. Especially I love to paint in Corel Painter. That tool is just incredible. I also use Photoshop, Gimp and Open Canvas but it's a really rare thing. I started to dislike Photoshop so my work with this software is focused only on adding borders and titles. To be honest I can paint in a traditional way and sometimes I do it but I'm ...too lazy so I prefer digital media. Having a tablet as a tool is fun. Traditional stuff is more time-consuming to me and I'm a very impatient person. My father paints traditional pictures. I always admire his patience but apparently we are slightly different. Also my Love paints in a traditional way. I think 2 traditional artists in my surrounding are enough Just give me the tablet, beer and chocolate, put the chair under my bottom and I will be painting

***Dear Nellis -I wonder what tips you could share with us on painting backgrounds?(~demoncherry)

I usually use watercolor tool for backgrounds in Corel Painter. There are lots of lovely things to do with this. I just play with it. I add things or delete and actually I don't know the effect before it's finished. Watercolor tools rule with their own laws. I'm never sure about the effect but apparently I know that tools not too well yet. Currently I play with them. Before I decide it's finished. In an airbrush-background painting I start with dark background color and then add some half-tones: brighter and darker but I never use transparent or bright background. I start with dark grey, dark brown, dark green etc., depends on basic tones of my future painting. Well I can say I paint backgrounds like I paint anything else, like hair for example (look for the tutorial in my scraps). I just use other brushes.

***What types of brushes do you prefer when painting?
I don't like textured brushes and I don't use them because they are not natural to me. Strokes are different than any other and I don’t feel well with myself using them. I'm in love with painting details and I spend a lot of time doing this so I prefer small-sized round detail brushes (acrylic or airbrushed). Usually they're 3 or 5 pixels hard brushes. For painting backgrounds I use flat round brushes and then I finish working with big round soft ones, when I want I can use watercolor brushes (runny water brush rockzzz!)-especially when there're trees and plants in the background. For shadows-always big soft brushes but lights are always detailed. I like to add the dust and some small lights when I'm finishing the art so I paint them with spray brushes customizing them according to my will. I start to paint skin with some soft round brushes but to make it more natural I always add some spray color spots. The skin isn't neither homogeneous nor flat, there are some spots and imperfections. The thing which is always time-consuming is painting detailed hair with thin small half-soft pointy brushes.

***Do you select a color palette in a painting from the beginning, or do you build one in the process?

It depends on a particular piece. But actually it's the last thing I choose I build it during the painting process. And then I add an extra layer to cover the art with colors I want to change if changes are necessary. I think I plan each color individually. It's hard to paint something you see inside your head for a second but it's not impossible. There are times when I change the color palette in the middle of progress or I abandon that art piece to paint it in a different way. Once again from the beginning. Strange, I know

***What is your opinion about watermarks?

It's the only way to protect arts in the web. I don't mind to put even large watermarks and I do it by myself very often. My art was stolen so I know how it hurts. Though I can be sure I'm the owner of original big-sized images with all non-grouped and non-merged layers. Watermarks are necessary and I don't understand why sometimes people blame artists for adding them. There are so many rips. I mean especially that serious rips with selling stolen art. Who will protect art if not artists themselves?

9. How did you discover deviantART? What do you consider that this community has brought in your personal and your artistic life? You’ve been a long-time deviant (since 2002): are there any DA artists whom you’ve been in contact with ever since the beginning? Who are they and what do they mean to you as an artist and as a person?

My friend ~oiolosse told me about deviantART long time ago. It was so long ago that the oldest highlanders can't remember hehe So I said: "Why not?" and started to submit photos here, then - art. I think deviantART gave me the chance to develop my skills using the tutorials submitted here and talking with artists about tips and techniques. I've made a huge step during that few years (aye, I'm a long-time deviant here, almost a museum piece heh, a fossil LOL). And also deviantART had and still has got a big influence on my personal life. I'm here almost everyday and almost all day long. I've met so many precious friends here.A few of them are like my family, especially my dear =aquilier whom I’ve known for so long. She had and still has a big influence on my art. I owe her so much! I consider my family other people I call friends here. Also I fell in love through deviantART and my Love, ~Dragor666Shadex is the best man and the greatest friend I know. Actually I don't remember people who were here with me when I joined deviantART. I remember only few faithful friends which seem to support me since almost the beginning: ~iksfiluss, `onestar, *viperv6, =aquilier and `insaneone and for them I came back to deviantART in 2004 after a huge art theft and a few things I want to forget. I remember that my first watcher ever was `musicinmyhead and he still seems to watch me although he is a bit inactive

10. What is it that makes you feel whole, or are you still searching for it?(~Abraxasoblivioner)

I think I'm completed but it doesn't mean I'm the "final piece". I'm changing, evolving, going further. The thing that makes me feel whole is the conscience I'm fully shaped. I'm not under the influence of other people and I can control my life. And for some time I have felt more whole than ever. It's because of love I think I'll feel this much more soon when I leave this country and start my own life entirely. I know so. Nothing can make me feel whole better than freedom, the conscience I can be totally untamed.