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.

Good morning from the west coast of Norway in March. We have had a very wet and grey start of the year 2020, full of storms, snow, avalanches.  The necessity of removing yourself from the reality of what is outside your window is  what keeps us sane. People have their jobs (hopefully indoors), books to escape into, music, art, sports, etc. We turn inside. Hopefully, soon we will turn outside again. We have had short bursts of good weather and sunshine, but, let me repeat, SHORT.  Just enough to remind us that the sun IS behind those grey clouds, and the days are getting longer. Hallelujah!!!!
I have escaped to Geilo (in the mountains between Bergen and Oslo) where the snow is 3-4 ft. high and still accumulating, and everything outside is white. Now, that might seem like a good thing and it is when the sun comes out and the blue sky, sun and white snow lighten everything up. But white is still a colourless blanket that is cold and lifeless. You can go out and play in it, when you put on 4 layers of wool and wind stopper jackets. The wind!!! Good luck skiing downhill when the wind is blowing 60 m.p.h. Breathing is hard, seeing is hard (goggles take care of that, though). I can take it for about 2 weeks, then I have to come back to Bergen, to my own home, to my studio and friends and family. The studio, especially. I walk around here in our small city and find hundreds of flowers and bushes ready to pop with buds and the azaleas spreading their message.... pink and delicate.
So, when I get to the painting table and squeeze out/scoop out gobs of buttery paint, I have spring in my head. It's time to be done with black, leafless mountains, cold, grey skies, completely white landscapes.....it's time for a change!

Wondering - Always Wondering.

I'm 2 weeks into my latest showing of the work I have been labouring over for the past year. I lost one week in the beginning of the month due to a trip to Nice, France which I felt was a great source of inspiration for work that would come afterwards.  The time immediately after coming home was spent frantically putting this exhibit together and left me wondering if it really was the most urgent thing in this world, or if anyone would even notice or care if I stopped painting altogether.
Negative thoughts are, unfortunately, a part of my process - both the painting process and all of the other life stuff.  Not unlike everyone else on the planet.
No one would likely care if my painting quietly disappeared from civilisation.  I'm not sure of what is coming down the pipe in the next 20 years.  All I know is that what I have done in the past 20 years has given me a trove of experience and has transformed my painting from merely nice, to much more expressive. My experience with color has given me confidence. My experience with line, form and composition has given me an eye for what works for me and what doesn't. Maybe the next 20 years will have me discovering something unique - I'll never know if I give up and throw in the towel now. With the EXPERIENCE I have under my belt, you'd think confidence would be a bi-product.
I think I'm mostly disappointed with the lack of curiosity from anyone who knows that I paint and thinks that because they saw something years ago, that the same sort of work is still being produced.
There is no way that, given my freedom from having to produce "saleable art", that I would continue on a conventional path. Maybe it's not ground breaking right now, but I think that when a creative is freed from commercialism, the mind can wander into new territory. I'm on my way there.  I will try to be more positive.  I, at least, know that I am breaking new ground every year.

 ACRYLIC ON CANVAS, 100 x 70 cm.

 ACRYLIC ON CANVAS, 50 x 40 cm.

 ACRYLIC ON CANVAS, 100 x 70 cm.

ACRYLIC ON CANVAS, 80 x 100 cm.

Good that I caught myself reading an article about owning your content, be it on your website or blog or portfolio or whatever.  Suddenly I got the urge to share what has been going on in my studio the last month. Lots of hours have been spent there and it seems that I am getting teased out of my usual method of working, urged to use different colors/new colors that I have purchased, but not included in my usual repertoire and coaxed to play more (and that is really HARD!). I have mostly been an intuitive painter, but underlying all my work is nature as inspiration. Nature walks, botanical gardens, rivers, oceans, fjords......I will always see some relation to these elements in my final product. I paint what I want to see. Photographs can be beautiful, but an personal interpretation of nature through the eyes of an individual can be just as fascinating-or more.
Anyway, my freedom with my materials, and the seemingly endless hours in the studio make for lots of experimentation and changes in technique. When stuck, I found that if I just doodle on the canvas-no matter if there is a direction or hours of work already there, I will force myself to redirect that attention. Never giving up-but never taking something so seriously that it can not be changed, has almost always taken me in a new direction that has built up my artistic intuition. I dare to mess it up, because I know that I can always come back to it, but more important, because a new breakthrough might be just around the next swash of color or line.  Be Brave-a note that has been hanging on my studio wall for 20 years, never looses it's relevance.

all paintings, acrylic on canvas/linen with highest/artists quality paint. 

OK. I know that I've been delinquent in keeping this up to date because I thought that this account was over and done with. I've been having some issues with WordPress and thought our relationship was through.  Now I just randomly typed in my acct., and up popped this.
OK, I thought, I'll update and see what happens. Just hope I don't write a LOT of dialog and then it all disappears when I push "post"...
I have been very busy, both with developing new work, and all the other duties that life presents. When I'm not in a position to be at the studio (vacation, holidays in the mts., etc.) I can do it for a while, but if it stretches out to weeks.....then I'm slowly turning into some kind of beast that resents everything that's holding me back. When we're not creating, we're not only NOT moving forward, I feel that I am backsliding. When I finally make it back in the studio, it's like it takes me a while just to remember how to use the equipment again....not to mention what to paint.  One good thing is you see your work with very fresh new eyes, and that can be a catalyst to change what's not working.
OK. Here is a small sampling of some of the newer work that has manifested itself in the past few months. The is an event coming up in Bergen the 27th and 28th of April called B-Open in which over 130 artists in Bergen are opening their studios to the public for a chance to connect.  It's not a sales event, just a way for people to see what you do, see where and how you work and have a little conversation with like minded.  I'm thinking it's a great opportunity to have a little exhibit in one of the long halls we have in our building, and hopefully meet some new people and connect with friends and neighbors.  I really hope that it will be the informal stage that allows people to dare to enter our working space and see how we try to make something out of nothing.
Here are a few of my latest paintings that I am working on for my next exhibit in September at Lille Atelier, Lille Øvregt. 16-Bergen.

Acrylic on canvas, 120 x 40 cm. 

Acrylic on canvas 100 x 70 cm. 

Acrylic on canvas 100 x 80 cm. 

Acrylic on canvas  45 x 60 cm.

Acrylic on canvas  100 x 120 cm.

The Fall of Fall......

Considering that it's one week until we turn the clock back and hour, spring and summer came and went without making much of an impression. The wet weather this year has left me kind of in limbo-not really inspired and not really .... anywhere. My exhibit in Grimstad in June was a pleasant exercise, but not much more than that. Soon after installing it, I broke my shoulder, and the next couple of months were spent in a sort of rehab. Luckily, one of my sisters from the US came to Norway in July and lifted my dwindling spirits-even the sun gods showed up for her. A trip to Spain in the end of July & then, France in September saved my artistic endeavors from falling totally off the wagon. Some good work was done in the middle of some of these trips and the current exhibit in Lille Atelier is some of the best work I've shown.  Getting some P.R. for an exhibit in this town is pretty much impossible, as the newspapers no longer find it important to publish a list of galleries and exhibitors. New galleries are popping up all over the city, run by the artists themselves and some traditional format galleries, but don't expect Bergens Tidende or Bergens Avisen to let the public in on who's exhibiting and what type of art they are presenting. More than a few of the people who I had conversations with in my gallery this month have expressed frustration over not knowing where to get info. on this. What is the solution? Why is visual art being ignored in this city? Both the artists and the public deserve better treatment.  Anyway, once again I will share that I am currently exhibiting the following paintings at Lille Atelier, Lille Øvregt. 16, Bergen-just to the right of the Fløybanen, one block over towards Korskirke Allmening, from now until the 29th of October, 2017. This last week I am planning to be there Tuesday-through Friday from 14:00 til 18:00, and Saturday and Sunday from 12:00 til 17:00.