Hans-Ola Ericsson - The Visual Artist
When the debilitating corona pandemic hit, we were in Montreal. Everything was shut down in society and in a week's time we would switch to giving all teaching "online". The formerly attractive and charming city even seemed to me to be ugly and abandoned. Painting has always accompanied my work in music. But before I considered this only as a pleasant pastime. My dear Lena urged me to take hold of this, for me, such a wonderful artistic expression. I guess she was tired of my faltering and my impatience during the lockdown we were forced upon. Well, in Montreal I had a wonderful studio meant for my music making, a studio that was soon invaded by canvases and all kinds of colors. As I said, I had no idea that painting would be anything other than a therapeutic activity. When we then moved home to Sweden in 2020, I continued to dig inside myself for expressions that I liked and I continued my painting in the studio we had built. I have shown my paintings through social media and have received a lot of very nice comments from friends that I respect and look up to. Exhibiting paintings is of course something completely different from playing concerts and I realize that it's exciting, but from somewhere the thought came: "but what the hell, you only live once and I like what I've created and I think that my paintings have a good expression and can give other people a rare experience of beauty”. I have had two major exhibitions and am currently planning a couple more.
From the studio
Hans-Ola Ericsson - The Visual Artist
When the debilitating corona pandemic hit, we were in Montreal. Everything was shut down in society and in a week's time we would switch to giving all teaching "online". The formerly attractive and charming city even seemed to me to be ugly and abandoned. Painting has always accompanied my work in music. But before I considered this only as a pleasant pastime. My dear Lena urged me to take hold of this, for me, such a wonderful artistic expression. I guess she was tired of my faltering and my impatience during the lockdown we were forced upon. Well, in Montreal I had a wonderful studio meant for my music making, a studio that was soon invaded by canvases and all kinds of colors. As I said, I had no idea that painting would be anything other than a therapeutic activity. When we then moved home to Sweden in 2020, I continued to dig inside myself for expressions that I liked and I continued my painting in the studio we had built. I have shown my paintings through social media and have received a lot of very nice comments from friends that I respect and look up to. Exhibiting paintings
Från ateljén
is of course something completely different from playing concerts and I realize that it's exciting, but from somewhere the thought came: "but what the hell, you only live once and I like what I've created and I think that my paintings have a good expression and can give other people a rare experience of beauty”. I have had two major exhibitions and am currently planning a couple more.
From an exhibition in Leufstabruk's art association in 2022
Questions
Hans-Ola Ericsson is a versatile artist active as a concert organist, pedagogue, composer and visual artist. He was born in 1958 in Stockholm
He is active as a concert organist throughout the world focusing on music from the 20th century, music of our own time and baroque music, especially the works of Johann Sebastian Bach. He has also made several award-winning recordings.
Ericsson has been a professor at several schools of music, including the School of Music in Piteå at Luleå University of Technology in Sweden and the Schulich School of Music at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.
He has been involved as an expert in several organ projects and also led several
significant projects such as the Övertorneå project and the construction of the
symphonic organ in Studio Acusticum in Piteå.
Ericsson has an extensive list of works and has composed works that stretch from the mid-1970s until today. One of his famous works is " The Amen of the Four beasts" a Mass for organ and electronics from the year 2000.