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Born in Denmark and currently based in London, this artist has developed a distinctive visual language defined by colour. emotional resonance, and philosophical reflection. Her work, held in both public and private collections internationally, has received several awards over the course of a career spanning three decades. Nature plays a central role in her visual vocabulary, Trees and flowers frequently function as metaphors for human experience. As she explains, "I often use nature - trees and flowers — as metaphors for people." Her paintings emerge from memory, imagination, and lived experience. Having travelled extensively and embraced what she describes as "a colourful life," she relies primarily on what she calls her "mind's eye," conceiving and executing each canvas from an internal vision rather than external reference. Every work is therefore singular, whether rooted in reality or entirely imagined.

Stylistically, her practice may be described as a form of abstract Impressionism, though it increasingly incorporates symbolic and conceptual elements. At times, a deliberate naivety appears — not as simplicity, but as clarity of emotional intention. Her thematic universe is broad yet cohesive. Over the years, she has explored dreamscapes, female forms, playful cosmic imagery, and exuberant floral compositions. More recently, her work has turned toward themes of hope and love, retlections and evocative memories of her Scandinavian heritage. At the heart of her practice lies a deeply personal impulse. As she succinctly states: "I paint my life in colour - from the heart."

international art magazine ARTLO, spring edition (art book) 2026

Her style is a curious mixture encompassing figurative, naive, abstract, and modern Impressionism. She cannot be pigeon-holed; she does not fit into any established movement. Her paintings just evolve together with her life. This is an accurate self-description rather than evasion: the work genuinely resists categorical assignment. The Dreamscapes hover between landscape and vision; the Female Forms are figurative but dissolve the body into color and curve; the Cosmos works are neither strictly abstract nor representational but something in between — emotionally concrete, visually open. The post-Impressionist inheritance is most visible in the handling of complementary contrasts and the refusal to subordinate color to outline, but the governing sensibility is entirely her own.

She rarely paints on the spot. She takes photos — often to never look at the result — and really paints from her mind's eye. Timelessness prevails. The "mind's eye" concept is central to understanding how the work operates. These are not transcriptions of places seen but reconstructions of places felt — the emotional residue of experience distilled into color relationships. Scandinavian Sunrise, Midsummer Denmark, Petra by Night, The Red Hills of Africa: each title announces a geography while the painting itself delivers something more interior, a felt impression rather than a visual record. The result, across the Dreamscapes series in particular, is a body of landscape painting in which the landscape is also always autobiography.

Her female forms are ever colorful, abstract'ish forms. She is drawn to and fascinated by the beauty of rounded shapes and curves. Her "women of the world" as well as out-of-this-world are, in fact, all goddesses, floating comfortably in clouds or even in space. The Female Forms series is where the mythological dimension of the practice is most explicit. Titles such as The Seven Goddesses of Life, Dance of the Seven Veils, Three Sirens, Space Dance, Fiery Dance of Goddesses place the female figure in a continuum from ancient mythology to cosmic fantasy, the body becoming a vehicle for something larger than individual portraiture. The connection to the series The Seven Daughters of Eve — the artist's interpretation of Professor Bryan Sykes's genetic study of female ancestry — gives the mythological framing a specifically scientific- humanist grounding: these are goddesses who are also our literal biological ancestors.

The most recent series, Dream Blues — Mind's Eye Reflections, begun in 2024, represents a deliberate turn toward chromatic restraint within an essentially passionate practice. Blue has been an obsession throughout her life — her "Danish Blues" as she calls them, a Nordic trait, a soul-thing — and she is always revisiting them, now more than ever. Most of the paintings are monochromatic, but occasionally she strays into other colors. In her work she often relies on metaphors — trees, for example — where everything is symbolical, filled with memories, reflections seen through her mind's eye. The tree as symbol recurs throughout these blue works: Three Trees. Dream Reflection, My Tree of Dreams, High Winds (sycamores). The description accompanying My Tree of Dreams makes the symbolic intention explicit — the tree as the unity of all people, roots going deep. High Winds and Perfect Calm use the sycamore's mythological resonance to address the world's contemporary turbulence, the flame colors she introduces to the blue field standing for what she describes as the world we live in today.

A collector whose eye was caught by the volcanic chromaticism of Candyfloss Moon or the cosmic swirl of the Playful Cosmos works will find in the Dream Blues series a different but equally considered register of the same fundamental practice: a painter who uses color as her primary instrument of meaning, working with equal conviction at full saturation and in the quieter territory of deep blue and silvered form.

Despina Tunberg Curator
World Wide Art Books and Artavita
wwab.us

Danish-born artist Ulla Plougmand lives and works in London, England, where she has developed a rich, personal visual language shaped by a lifetime of artistic exploration. With early roots in sketching and croquis drawing, her practice has been guided in part by the influence of British painter Anthony Eyton RA, and deeply inspired by Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masters, especially Vincent van Gogh. Her vibrant canvases, held in both public and private collections across the globe, reflect a career marked by philosophical introspection, emotional expressiveness, and an ever-evolving engagement with form and color.

Over the years, Plougmand has shifted toward using symbolic forms—particularly trees and flowers—as metaphors for the human condition. These elements, rendered from memory rather than direct observation, form the cornerstone of her imaginative landscapes. Her practice, while rooted in traditional media like acrylic on canvas, rejects conventional plein air techniques. Instead, she paints from the mind’s eye, creating compositions that are as much about interior states as they are about external scenery.

Plougmand’s paintings inhabit an emotive terrain where color becomes a conduit for memory and sensation. In works like ‘Dream Reflections. Three Trees’, there is a lyrical interplay of deep blues and purples, creating a dreamlike world of floating forms and quiet introspection. The trees are not rendered botanically but rather as abstracted beings, standing like sentinels over a terrain that feels both aquatic and celestial. Meanwhile, a piece such as ‘Birch Trees in Winter’ showcases her talent for capturing light and atmosphere through minimal, expressive means—its golden hues and cascading lines evoking a forest suffused with warmth and memory, despite its wintry title.

What distinguishes Plougmand’s work is the intensity of her inner vision—her ability to channel lived experiences, emotional depth, and philosophical musings into color-saturated, symbolic tableaux. She doesn’t paint what she sees but what she senses, crafting each piece as a visual poem that invites contemplation. Her approach to color is intuitive yet refined, offering a palette that oscillates between the meditative and the exuberant, echoing the richness of her life journey.

In the wider field of contemporary painting, Ulla Plougmand offers a singular vision—rooted in observation, matured through intuition, and elevated by the metaphysical. Her art is a deeply personal yet universally resonant search for meaning, beauty, and connection. It offers the viewer not just images, but emotional landscapes—reflections of the soul where memory and imagination bloom together on canvas.

The colour BLUE has been an obsession of mine all throughout my life (My ‘Danish Blues’ as I call them - it’s a Nordic trait, a soul-thing) and I am always revisiting them, now more than ever. Most of my paintings will be monochromatic, but occasionally I will also be straying into other colours - even Picasso did so during his Blue Period! In my work I often rely on metaphors (e.g. trees..), everything is symbolical, filled with memories, reflections, seen through my mind’s eye. People, places, situations, I have encountered throughout my colourful life…and, all is heartfelt.

Sit back - and watch!

I was recently interviewed by the international luxury property magazine ABODE2, and you will be able to see the full interview online for the next three months by clicking on the link shown here below.

With all my best wishes,
ULLA

As always, I prefer to emphasise the positive aspects of life. Like many of us today I am haunted by the shocking events taking place in Ukraine. I will leave it to others to show the horrible sights and scenes that so tragically take place daily in a war torn country. I have therefore embarked on a brand new series of paintings showing all the diverse natural beauty of Ukraine, an independent country now ravished by a wholly undeserved and brutal war.

A country like Ukraine with its proud, courageous people deserves freedom and peace, love and hope. I pray for this every day. In the meanwhile I shall do my best to show, on canvas, in my own way, the true natural beauty of this amazing country. I am going to fill all my canvasses with these beautiful sights! This is a work in progress - I started painting this series during the summer of 2022 and keep finding an abundance of inspiration as I am going along, in fact, more every day. I have chosen to basically paint in the national colours of Ukraine, a multitude of hues of blue and yellow, on my favourite snow-white canvas.

I hope from my heart that my paintings will also eventually show a new resplendent Ukraine…rising like a phoenix, after the war…To quote Martin Luther King: “I Have a Dream…”

And now to work!

As always I am relying on my genuine inspiration, my passion and intuition - which has been my trusty guide above everything else. Straight from the heart.

As a Danish-born painter I have always been very attracted to the particular beauty of Nordic and wild sceneries - and their short summers.

As part of what I like to call my ‘Danish Blues’ I painted ‘White Nights. Silent Forest’ in 2007 and have held my hand over it ever since, as it touched something deep-felt in my Scandinavian soul. The deep forest lakes surrounded by serene, tall pine forests - cool, mysterious, dreamlike.

Looking at this painting one might sense the moon above, and also get a sense of those rare nights when it never gets fully dark, their life so very short…

I am donating this painting in the hope that I may be of some help to the tragic and brave people of Ukraine, and at the same time I would also like to think that my painting will find a good home! - It was painted from the heart, as is every painting of mine.