Valerie Brennan interviews painter Siri Kollandsrud about her work and process.

Kollandsrud comments: "I might start a painting with a vague or clearer idea. It can come from everywhere or anything. Like a collage of visual and mental observations. Some things I see, think, or a composition, just to start. I put up something, and then kind of start a dialogue with the canvas. Things evolve through working. It can change from the first idea. I am always open and asking questions. I work intuitively, but always reflecting and changing between this. The canvas can be like a playground, where I put out different elements and opposite movements and somehow try organizing this, searching for a stage or room where it feels set, balanced or at a certain point or edge… Sometimes I start by putting up a difficult colour just to make some resistance to work on, or also to crash and open a painting that doesn’t really work. I can never know if it will work. But I have to continue. It is of course wonderful when the work is in a flow; I just paint certainly without thinking. It is important some times to wait and look, and also just work with the uncertainty. It’s always a balance."