Simon Stålenhag's Forest Iron
I have been a fan of Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag for several years at this point, certainly since before he produced concept and box art for No Man’s Sky. Most of the wallpapers that I have in rotation on my desktop are pieces downloaded from his site, and in recent years I have acquired a modest collection of Stålenhag-signed books, sketches, and prints via Kickstarter campaign pledges. I would dearly love to own one of his original paintings one day, but this week—ironically as a result of one coming up for auction—I learned that that might be tricky. In retrospect it seems obvious, but I had no clue that the vast majority of Stålenhag’s works are created digitally. Turns out he goes to great lengths to ensure that his works look like oil paintings, but that was not always the case.
Back in 2010, Stålenhag was still painting with gouache and produced this piece, titled Forest Iron:
This painting is being auctioned for charity online until October 23 and, I gotta tell you, if money were not quite the inconvenience that it is for me right now, I would be all over it. I have no idea if a piece like this could be considered an investment or anything like that, I just know that I love it, and that the expected sale price of 100000 SEK (a little over $11000) does not seem crazy to me, especially knowing that the proceeds are going to a good and gaming-related cause.
I will not be bidding on this occasion, but please, do not let that stop you from doing so imaginary and super-wealthy reader. For more information on the auction, check out the Bukowskis auction site.
