If I ask you to picture the most beautiful building you can think of, what comes to mind? How about a beautiful sculpture or painting? Perhaps a beautiful piece of furniture? I believe it is fair to say that what you see before your inner eye is a classical form of design, great craftsmanship, something with love poured into every little detail. Equally so, if I were a betting man, I would make the bet that you did not picture a cube constructed from concrete and steel, a blank canvas or a book shelf from a Swedish furniture manufacturer not to be named. I suspect this not the case for superficial reasons, but because there exists a deep connection between our perception of beauty and our human nature.

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A lot of you, my new readers, most likely know me from a currently ongoing series of publications on The Culturist, where we are documenting the creation process of a painting of Saint Catherine of Siena. However, this collaborative effort is serving a much greater cause than just myself or my humble painting: All the while tracing the life of this outstanding saint and mystic, we want to inspire you and many others to support the work of artists you appreciate in whatever way you can, so that your passive disillusionment in our own time’s confusion regarding art and beauty can turn into an active promotion of all that, which you truly believe in.

While it is true that I am first and foremost a painter, I view my job more broadly than to simply put oil paint onto canvas. As an artist, I am actively shaping our culture, no matter how big or small my impact may be. With that comes a certain responsibility and I have to ask myself what I truly believe in: What are my values? Why do I do what I do and not something else?

Living in a world where a banana taped to a wall is infamously hailed as great, radical, and impactful as it is being auctioned off for millions, I have had to justify my own choice to commit myself to a much more traditional form of art many times before. Although many of you as my readers, who I would imagine take a liking to my art, may support this mission of mine, I think the specific set of values and beliefs I hold and that fuel me in my work as an artist deserve to be discussed in more detail. Hence, I choose to start writing about them right here on The Painter’s Gaze.

So, what can you expect?

The Painter’s Gaze shall serve multiple purposes at once: On one hand, I would like it to be an output for my personal work, i.e. a free monthly newsletter in which I will share news from the studio with you and what I have been up to. More importantly, however, I would like to use this platform to share my thoughts on art, beauty, spirituality, and more with you all and hear your own thoughts in return. My personal hope is that I can inspire others to ponder the truthfulness of beauty more deeply, but also to educate myself more, whereby I shall grow deeper in my beliefs and not least of all in my faith.

Ever since my own conversion to Catholicism, which I would love to write more about in future articles, in my eyes beauty and faith are inseparably tied together. To understand this connection between the beautiful and the divine, I also hope to amplify the voices of other people I appreciate and admire. As mentioned above, The Painter’s Gaze shall grow into something that transcends my limited self; indeed, I want it to be a platform that explores the transcendental values at the core of true beauty and thereby lead us collectively into a direction, where we consciously cherish as well as actively nourish the creation of beauty in our world. I am beyond blessed to know many people who have deeply interesting thoughts to share on this matter and I am excited to introduce them to you.

If you would like to support me in my endeavours, both in my work as a painter as well as right here on Substack, I would like to invite you to become a paid subscriber to The Painter’s Gaze.

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Hopefully you will find my writings interesting and meaningful; most importantly, however, I hope that we can assist one another in opening our eyes towards the essential value of beauty and turn this ship we sail across the ocean of time around, so we may fix our gaze once more upon the source of all that is good, true, and beautiful: Love.

Thank you for being here, thank you for reading, and thank you for all of your support. It truly means the world to me.

Carl-Nikolas

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