Johanne Lykke is an abstract watercolorist who creates large-scale watercolor paintings on paper that draw on American art history traditions like Colorfield Painting. Her work explores new perspectives on the status and possibilities of watercoloring. Using monumental scales, she work with a deconstructed approach to abstract landscape painting, yet investigates the language and simlilarities between the sublime in art and in nature. 

Johanne received her Fine Art degree from The Jutland Art Academy in 2015 and completed an independent study at Residency Unlimited in Brooklyn, New York in 2014. She currently lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark. She is currently developing a feminist podcast, which exclusively tells the story of female painters today. 

What quote do you live by?

I came across this quote a few years ago by writer, Elizabeth Gilbert: “Create the things you wish existed” because it reminds me to make the art that makes me happy.

What advice would you give a woman entering the art world?

Trust in yourself, make the art you want to make and not what you think will please others. Your art is about how honest you are with yourself.

Who was the last artist to really catch your eye, and for that matter, who was the first? What was it about their work that moved you?

I came across the work of Merrill Wagner recently and I was very lucky to get the chance to visit her studio last time I was in NYC. Seeing her large archive of works which she created throughout her life was really moving. Agnes Martin was one of the first abstract painters whom I deeply connected with as an art student. The poetry and sensibility in her paintings and writing helped me return to painting after several years break.

If you were to have a “night at a museum” which one would you pic? 

If there existed a museum devoted exclusively for Abstract Women Painters, that would be it.