GOOD morning from the west coast of Norway.
I just re-read my previous post, and it couldn't be more ironic compared to the reality we are dealing with now. What a difference a month makes. I'm not going to give a report about how Norway has handled this pandemic, just suffice it to say that we must be doing something right (social distancing!!).
About the art, a funny thing happened with it in the last month. At first, I wasn't sure if I could even go to my studio or out of the house for non-essential reasons. I decided to do a series of drawings of things I have around me, since drawing is something I enjoy, but isn't generally a part of my painting practice.  So, I started out with some dried roses that are still on various tables around the house. I generally buy new flowers about every 2 weeks to cheer me up and add some beauty to the house/kitchen, so when this pandemic began and I was buying essentials to stock up with, flowers were NOT on my essentials list. Consequentially, the flowers I had I let dry out completely. The small drawings were fun and each one was different, so I felt in touch with creativity still. I made 4 watercolours and one black and white charcoal.  (gifting these to friends and family).  But I needed more-larger scale, bolder colors, bolder strokes. I started to go over to my studio-with disposable gloves, hand sanitiser and lots of wipes. Although we are 16-17 artists in the building, we don't see each other or work together and only meet if we feel the need to discuss "issues".  I tried to continue on some work that was started B.C. (before Corona!), but the optimism and drive were gone. Some days I just went there and slept, read and went home again. The weather didn't help-wet, foggy, repressive. I ended up painting over many works that were lighter, brighter and "springy". I took out lots of photos of wooded trails with dark greens and browns. Most of these had light somewhere in them, either with the sun flooding through trees on the mountain tops, or small specs of light on new plant growth covering the ground.  My whole palette turned dark, but not a repressive dark, just dark greens with a very little gold/yellow somewhere....hope, in a way.  I completed a large (120 x 100 cm.) (3 x 4 ft.) canvas, and moved on to 3 other ones, smaller and in different formats. I'm thinking that even though we are in a dark place right now worldwide as far as this disease is concerned, the sun is still shining, the plants have tiny leaves and tiny flowers, and the birds are still singing. My daily walks and my studio are two things that I can do to take my head to another place and distance myself from some of the horrible realities "out there". Take care, everyone, and don't do stupid things that will just prolong the agony of this situation. Air Hugs!!

Acrylic on canvas  60 x 50 cm. 

Acrylic on canvas,  100 x 70 cm. 

Acrylic on canvas  60 x 50 cm. 

Acrylic on canvas  80 x 100 cm. 

Acrylic on canvas  120 x 100 cm.