Beautiful Moëns
Back in the beautiful culture landscape of Moëns, trying to capture the colours of autumn.
Older paintings - favourite spots
I am still digging up photos of older paintings. It’s remarkable how certain places have been visited and painted again and again. One of those spots is the place called Bånn (“Bottom”) in Bunnefjorden (the small end of the Oslo Fjord). This is a place one normally just pass by in a car, but it has always attracted me. Very quiet (except for the passing cars), a lot of wildlife, nothing much happening except the boat restoration projects exchange places once in a year or so.
Here are two paintings painted about 20 years ago.
Krykkjene på veggen / The Kittywakes on the wall
From time to time I have recieved local grants consisting of a small sum of money, free lodging and a mandatory exhibition after the stay. One of these grants took me to Namsos in Mid-Norway. One great benefit here was the free use of public tranport. After a while I took the ferry out to Sør-Gjæslingan (meaning the Southern Goslings, from the distance they look like a flock of goslings). This incredibly beautiful environment had been, a hundred years ago, the largest fishing village south of the more famous ones in Lofoten. Here the Black-legged Kittywakes ruled the territory. Whereever it was possible to nest on these practical artificial cliffs that the humans had been kind enough to put up, they nested. Their shit etched through the metal roofs, making maintenance hard. I managed to make some sketches of the birds, and painted this picture. It’s actually one of the few watercolours I’ve completed, 43x31 cm.
When my hair still had colour
Digging deep in the archives, finding paintings from way back. Here is a self portrait from 1995, oil on canvas, 30x30 cm. I still had my parents, had a body that easily got out of bed in the morning, and my hair still had colour. Life is strange.
Early spring in Maridalen
Maridalen is, though being very rural, a part of the town of Oslo. The lake there has been the main source for drinking water for Oslo during the last century and more. This painting took three years to finish, because of the extremely fast changes of nature this time of year. There is still ice on the water and remains of snow in the plow furrows, the white anemones have already started to bloom, but the trees bear only a promise of what’s to come.
Sunset at Hankoe
Here, at my dear, dear friend Harriet’s summer home, I painted her own, private, view of the sunset. Right outside her kitchen terrace, the preferred place from which one shall enjoy the sunset, preferrably, if not working (i.e painting), with a glass of Italian red in one’s hand.
Beeing the highest location on the island, the house was occupied by German troops during World War II. They built trenches and a lookout tower, and had shooting competitions at the flag pole. Fortunately the house survived. Still you can get stuck in German barbed wire in the surroundings.
It’s a comforting thought that the troops could see the sun go down for the Third Reich from here.
Autumn fields
Another pastel finished, a year after it was started. This is a field in Pregny-Chambésy, not far from where I live in Le Grand-Saconnex. I think this was a resting period for the soil, don’t even know if they cut it in the end. The growth seemed wild - grass, different weeds and some rape seed, probably surviving seeds from an earlier crop. Now, standing in the same place, you cannot see neither the trees nor the Juras, it’s all behind 3 meters tall corn plants.
Photographer (and dog owner): Marc Dishy
Older paintings
I’m trying to dig up photographs of older paintings planning to have as many as possible posted on this home page. Here is a sunset from Stråholmen, a beautiful little island on the South Coast of Norway. Oil on canvas, 25x52 cm.
Update, finally
I’ve been quiet for a while, but here I’m back. I don’t know about others, but following an exhibition I’m usually rather worn out, feeling empty. and wondering what’s the point of it all.
These days I’m working on finishing and framing some pastels. This one was started in Prévessin-Moëns in February. It’s the largest pastel I’ve ever made, paper size is appr. 67x102 cm, 26x40”. A challenge to paint and also a challenge to frame.
FINISSAGE
The exhibition in Kragerø Kunstforening is soon to be ended. It will be open tomorrow, thursday, from 12:00 to 17:00, friday, saturday and sunday from 12:00 to 17:00.
I will be present in the gallery the last couple of hours.
Utstillingen i Kragerø Kunstforening er snart slutt. Siste dager er i morgen, torsdag 12:00-17:00, fredag, lørdag og søndag 12:00-15:00. Jeg vil være tilstede i galleriet de siste par timene søndag.
Jomfruland
Det største maleriet på min utstilling i Kragerø Kunstforening heter “Bondens Jomfruland”. Selv om det viktigste arbeidet foregikk på jordet der i løpet av noen våruker, tok det ti år å få dette bildet ferdig. Men så malte jeg jo også endel annet underveis. (Noen ganger kan det gå ti år uten at et maleri noensinne kommer i mål, det er verre.)
Jeg opplever at de fleste jeg snakker med om Jomfruland er mest opptatt av utsiden. Selv er jeg mest opptatt av den myke, milde og forbausende frodige innsiden, som er som et stykke av en annen verden som har kommet drivende og lagt seg tilrette utenfor det karrige, steinete landet vårt.
Utstillingen i Kragerø Kunstforening er åpen hver dag 12-15, torsdag 12-17, t.o.m 1. august.
The need to be brutal, or Kill your darlings
Sometimes it’s necessary to be brutal. I strived with this painting for a long time. Somehow the foreground never became interesting enough. The first version of the painting, with the high foreground, is maybe more compositionally satisfying, but for me it’s impossible to keep a part of a painting that I don’t find filled with enough content that interests me. So: “Kill your darlings” is maybe the most important doctrine as far as painting is concerned. This time it was done with a knife and new stretcher bars.
Exhibition opening
At my exhibition opening last saturday I was fortunate enough to have present, along with old and new friends, one brother, two daughters, one son, one son-in-law, one daughter-in-law, one grandson and one granddaughter, leaving only my wife and one daughter to be missed. My son-in-law generously played us a couple of songs.
Plow Tracks
I stumbled upon this motif one day I had to step out of my way on natures behalf. Behind the bus shed by Nesodden’s medieval church, I saw these beatiful fields and forests, with the blue hills on the other side of the fjord in the background.
There is something about old farmland, it has grown organically out of the landscape shapes. If the bedrock surfaces, it becomes the site to throw whatever is plowed up from the ground, and in the course of time becomes islands of jungle in the midst of the fields.
I am convinced this piece of land has been cultivated for more than a millennium, maybe with a break during and after the black plague in 1349-50 which killed maybe half of the population and laid huge parts of the land desolate.
More of early spring
Seems I can’t get enough of that season. This is about the same place as the previous one I published. Another year, though.
Early spring……………….
…………. must be my fovorite painting time of year. Thinking of it, this fascination for dead grass and rotting snow and ice seems rather morbid. On the other hand, the different hardwood trees display endless subtle variations of colour, and give a promise of new life. Whatsoever - I just love it.
Trouville
Painted some ten years ago at Trouville, a small beach situated on the island Hankoe in the Oslo Fjord. Last half of the 19th century this island became famous for clinics where they prescribed, for the good bourgeoisie, water therapies of different natures. Customized to la mode du temps the different attractions were given French names (Trouville is originally the name of a resort town in north-west France, by the English channel). From this beach you could, after having paid a small fee, lower your body into the salt water of the fjord while you inhaled the fresh air from the island's forests, apparently an unbeatable combination for the health.
The cliff wall on the right side faces north. The rocks and stones lying there have been pushed over the edge by the glacier during the last ice age, and protected by the very steep wall, they haven't been grinded round by the ice.
19,5x25,5", mostly Unison pastels.
Utstilling Kragerø Kunstforening / Exhibition in Kragerø Kunstforening
IMPORTANT: Date and time for the opening could be wrong. The organizers website says July 17th. I will post a new message when I know for certain.