About three months ago, @anna.fo__ texted me to tell me she was coming to Berlin for an art residency.
She wanted professional documentation of the works she would create during her residency, as well as a few portraits.
When we met and she showed me her recent pieces, I felt incredibly lucky to collaborate with her and photograph her art. Seeing her process up close and hearing what drives her to paint was inspiring. I truly love the works. 🤯
This is one of the reasons I love photographing artists: you never really know what you’re going to witness, hear, or what will unfold in front of your camera.
“Sweet Nothing.” 165x125 cm. Oil on canvas.
< You took my heart and you held it in your mouth. And with the word, all my love came … >
Painted during residency in Berlin
📸 @arshia.maljaei
The art world’s love for “liminal spaces” “fragmented identities” “fragility of memory” needs to stop. It’s my firm “Subway Take.”
(Great show, by the way.)
The more I read about art, the less I care for it in words. I just want art to touch me on an intuitive, physical plane.
Abstract & figurative, I want a painting that is lived in emotionally & physically. To see the mark making of a body in my painting. My own body and the body I paint.
“The Water Source, After Ingres.” 160x190 cm. Oil, pencil, charcoal on canvas.
#miltonsinspirations is back and this time it’s all about @anna.fo__ , her way to use her art and the way she can express herself through it📸🎨✨
I’ve stumbled upon her Instagram around 1,5 year ago and ever since I’ve been wanting to portray her art, her and to get a glimpse of how she sees the world and to shoot a bit of behind the scenes during her process.
For the ones, who haven’t been following along since my last series(2 years ago), I’ve figured out that I get a lot of my inspiration from other creative people, so I decided some years back to portray and highlight some of the persons in my network and give our audience a taste of what they do and what kind of their craft that inspires and motivate me and my own😍
“My work is not about gender - I like the idea that I paint as much with a male gaze as that of a female one.
I like when my female figures seduce, provoke and distort expectations.
Painting for me is an act of defiance against the mundane, the expected and the reasonable.
I want my canvas to feel fiercely alive.” - @anna.fo__
I was a fly on the wall for an hour or two and just allowed my analog camera follow her around in the studio, where her paintings were lying and hanging everywhere. Some were fulfilled, some weren’t done yet and some saw her attention more than others✨ Apparently she started her painting in less than two years ago to my big discovery🫡
The paint was gently mixed together, to create new nuances and layers to the paintings. Her pensels touched the wet paint and were thereafter swung in between the canvas and the colourful mixture🪄🎨
Her face was focused and yet relaxed at the same time all while Hania Rani was playing in the background🎶
It was an admiring act to witness and I’m glad and blessed that she allowed me to peak in on her, while she performed her art with her pensels, mind and heart🍀
Continue the good work @anna.fo__ 🌼
There’s something very special about seeing your work live in someone’s home.
I am convinced that every painting needs an entry point — a reason to look, a reason to stay. But the happy few do something more: they let the viewer write themselves into the work, so completely that on the ‘way out’, the work becomes theirs.
I think that is why we choose the art we do.
Portrait 📸 @arshia.maljaei
« It comes in waves. » Pleasure, pain, deep gratitude and sense of awe. All of it.
Pinned to my studio wall. 160 x 140 cm. Oil, pencil, pastel and charcoal on canvas.
All figures are borrowed from the French neoclassical movement.
« Not decoration.» Paint your muses, work with friends.
Recently I invited my friend and photographer to set up a photo studio in my paint studio. To work on a common project. The idea of a shared fe(male) gaze - through lens and paint. Consensual voyeurism. Photos that serve as references that become their own art works.
Model muse: @anna_sekkelund
Photo: @spychiatrist
Concept & paint: @anna.fo__
“Head Shoulders Knees & Toes.”
160 x 90 cm. Oil on canvas.
Fresh & finished work.
It is finished when I can keep it hanging on the studio wall and it asks nothing of me.
Feels a bit like the end of a good conversation.
Welcome to my first studio. I painted large scale and with oils for the first time this January in Berlin. Wauw. The sheer bodily joy of attacking a large canvas, I knew I wanted this to be part of my world.
Upon return home, I was lucky to find a crazy space for rent in a Copenhagen based art collective. It feels like being part of something exuberant and luxurious. A space for pure creation. I furnished my studio with finds from the local recycling center.
And you can now visit both — the recycling center and my studio. 😘
Sharing vibes and works in progress.
“Adam’s broken rib.” Sound on. 🔉
< I will be your accident, if you will be my … >
140 x 70 cm. Gouache, charcoal, dry pastel on paper.
Work photo 📸 credit: @arshia.maljaei
“All The Things She Said.” 160 x 120 cm. Oil on canvas.
📸 @arshia.maljaei
Painted in Berlin Art Institute residency. Jan 2026. This work has found a new home.
