“Peak Oil” becomes lithography / ”Peak Oil” blir litografi

When Olle Qvennerstedt agreed to illustrate my book “Peeking at Peak Oil” I was very happy because I knew that I would have one of Sweden’s most skillful illustrators at my side. But I could not guess that Olle would become completely enraptured by the task. Since we began with the work in Adelaide, Australia in November 2010 we have been in nearly daily contact and the effort that Olle has put into the more than 100 illustrations is enormous. Here are a few facts about Olle from the book’s inside cover:

Olle Qvennerstedt was educated as an illustrator and graphic artist at Berghs Reklamskola in Stockholm from 1961 to 1964. Since then he has been active as an illustrator for, among others, Sweden’s foremost broadsheet newspaper Dagens Nyheter and numerous advertising agencies. Between 1977 and 1981 Olle also worked in animated film. In 1981 he took the step into freelance work with a broad spectrum of commissions and since the early 1990s he has been active as an independent artist. He has now presented over 70 exhibitions of painting, drawing and graphic art both in Sweden and internationally. In the mid-1990s Olle began producing evocative and light-hearted illustrations for Kjell Aleklett’s lectures, and was the obvious choice to illustrate Peeking at Peak Oil.

Through Olle, art has come to Peak Oil and last autumn we decided to let Peak Oil come to art. We decided that three of the illustrations in the book would be printed as lithographs. Of course, we wanted the term “Peak Oil” to take wing and to indicate this Olle made a lithograph named simply, “Winged Word”. To have this lithograph printed professionally we turned to the master printer himself, Måns Heidvall of SibrienLito in Stockholm. We did the printing this week and below you can see a series of photos of the event. The three Peak Oil lithographs will be sold as a set and we have set a price that indicates that they are art but that will still be possible for many to afford. The lithographs will be numbered in a limited edition and sold around the world. The price will be 1,800 Swedish crowns (SEK) for each set (~200 euros, US$270). The lithographs will be released officially in May when the book is released but if anyone is interested in buying this unique artwork then they can pre-order by contacting Olle or me. (The website for Olle’s art is http://www.omart.info/Galleri.html)

When the lithographs are printed separate layers of colour are used. Here you can see a test printing where the only colours are black and blue.

Here Olle is working on transforming the original to a plate that will be used to print the colour green.

When I came to the printer on Tuesday afternoon it was time for the yellow colour. With a practiced and skillful hand Måns Heidvall puts the correct amount of colour onto the rollers.

A last adjustment before the press can be started.

The sheets that have already been printed with the colours black, blue and red begin to be fed into the printing press…

… and the printing is checked

An expectant artist.

Some first prints…

…that are checked by the experts. There were a number of test runs before everything was perfect.

At the end I saw a satisfied artist after the yellow colour had been printed.

(Swedish)
Då Olle Qvennerstedt tackade ja till att illustrera min bok ”Peeking at Peak Oil” blev jag väldigt glad för jag visste då att jag skulle få en av Sveriges skickligaste illustratörer vid min sida. Men jag kunde inte ana att Olle skulle bli helt begeistrad i uppgiften. Sedan vi började med arbetet i Aldelaid, Australien, i november 2010 har vi nästan haft daglig kontakt och den arbetsinsats som Olle har lagt ner på över 100 illustrationer är enorm. Här är lite fakta om Olle från bokens insida:

Olle Qvennerstedt was educated as an illustrator and graphic artist at Berghs Reklamskola in Stockholm from 1961 to 1964. Since then he has been active as an illustrator for, among others, Sweden’s foremost broadsheet newspaper Dagens Nyheter and numerous advertising agencies. Between 1977 and 1981 Olle also worked in animated film. In 1981 he took the step into freelance work with a broad spectrum of commissions and since the early 1990s he has been active as an independent artist. He has now presented over 70 exhibitions of painting, drawing and graphic art both in Sweden and internationally. In the mid-1990s Olle began producing evocative and light-hearted illustrations for Kjell Aleklett’s lectures, and was the obvious choice to illustrate Peeking at Peak Oil.

Genom Olle kom konsten till Peak Oil och i höstas beslutade vi oss för att låta Peak Oil komma till konsten. Vi beslutade att tre av illustrationerna i boken skulle tryckas som litografier. Självklart vill vi att Peak Oil skall bli ett bevingat ord och för att markera detta har Olle skapade en litografi som just heter ”Bevingade ord”. För att det skulle bli ett mästertryck vände vi oss till mästaren själv, Måns Heidvall och SibrienLito i Stockholm. I veckan har vi tryckt och här nedan är en bildkavalkad från tryckningen. De tre Peak Oil litografierna kommer att säljas i en mapp och vi har valt ett pris som markerar att det är konst, men som ändå skall vara möjlig för många att köpa. Litografierna kommer att numreras i en begränsad upplaga och säljas runt hela världen. Priset kommer att bli 1800 kronor för varje mapp (200 euro, 270 dollar). Officiellt släpps trycken då boken släpps i maj, men om någon skulle vara intresserad att köpa dessa unika konsverk går det bra att göra en förhandsbeställning hos Olle eller mig. (Hemsida för Olles konst: http://www.omart.info/Galleri.html)- Litografierna presenteras här ovan.

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