Flow and Form

Johannes Wessmark was the Second Prize Winner in International Artist magazine’s Challenge No. 130, People & Figures.

Working in multiple mediums, including oil, acrylic and pencil, the artwork of Johannes Wessmark is one of precision and total awareness of his subject matter. The Swedish artist paints figures, landscapes, still lifes and more, all in extremely realistic fashion. Submerged, acrylic and oil on canvas, 40 x 60"

“When I was young, I was drawing a lot as most children do, but with a very high level of detail and always aiming for realism,” Wessmark reflects. During school, he earned top grades in the fine arts and began to realize that this was something he wanted to pursue further. Flying Cadi, acrylic, oil and colored pencil on canvas, 60 x 40"

“Now I mix my passion for beauty with my ability to create paintings difficult to distinguish from photographs. Beautiful women, often in water, and landscapes come to life on my canvas as hyperrealistic acrylic and oil paintings,” he says.

His painting Flying Cadi captures the deftness and elegance of the human form. “The photo of Cadi hanging in the acrobatic cloth was taken by my friend and photographer April Alston McKay who often works in the Utah desert. I wanted to paint something for an art competition and asked her to send me some spectacular photos and she certainly did,” Wessmark says of the piece, which depicts a woman suspended in the air by strips of white cloth and a desert rockface behind her. In Submerged, the artist masters the complex forms of moving water and shifting light. Flaming hair, acrylic and pencil on paper, 31½ x 23½"

The inspiration behind Flaming hair comes from Wessmark’s passion for long, beautiful hair. “Most of the models I have painted through the years have long hair and are both a delight and a challenge to paint,” he says.

As a multi-award-winning artist, Wessmark has taught hyperrealistic painting in the United States, Germany and Sweden. “Over the years I have realized that my style and the genre I am working in is more popular in the U.S. than here in Sweden. Now I have most of my cooperation abroad. Among [these are] Studio Experience Gallery in Galveston, Texas, and the world-famous Plus One Gallery in London.”Johannes Wessmark works on a painting in his studio.