Oil Paintings Scenes from Norway
While living in Bergen, Norway in 1994 I decided I would capture in oils this wonderful land and its people. After eight years my labor of love consisted of over 30 oil paintings. Many of these were included in my two, solo exhibitions at the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Washington, D.C. and my one-person exhibition at the Nordic Heritage Museum in Seattle. While these are paintings of that beautiful land, their colors and themes would compliment the decor of every home.
Tribute to Myrkdalen
1996 Oil on Canvas 24″ x 36″ unframed $2500 Contact to Purchase Myrkdalen, the name means dark valley, but my recollections of Myrkdalen are all bright, from ski tours when the snow was plowed so high that the roads were like tunnels, to autumn hikes over rocky desolate highlands where defiant lemmings were the only creatures around; from dazzling days in early June when it seemed we skied over a gigantic snow cone with aquamarine pools just beginning to break through, to cozy, festal nights around the coffee table inside the pine-paneled walls. The young girl in the bunad (native […]
Frosty Morning in Tanvola
1996 Oil on Canvas 20″ x 24 ” unframed Sold My exhibition at the Nordic Heritage Museum is called “The Seasons of Norway,” and I like this painting because it shows two of them. Autumn still lingers on the trees and grasses around this lake, but winter is inexorably creeping down to meet it.
Harvest Time
1999 Oil on Canvas 30″ x 30″ unframed Sold There is water everywhere in Norway, and all of it is beautiful of its own, as well as capable of reflecting the other wonders around it. This still, glassy pond is a good mirror of the tidy farm and the birch trees igniting the constant pines.
Christmas near Mysuseter
1996 Oil on Canvas 11″ x 14″ unframed Sold Here is another hut, valiantly striving to breast the snowy waves, but this one will have to be brave and wait for Spring before welcoming its family again.
Winter Day in Otta
1996 Oil on Canvas 20″ x 24″ unframed $1800 Contact to Purchase Unlike its rainy manifestation on the west coast, winter retains a hard cold grip on the east. Here, the sun is rising over Sweden, but its rays have no effect upon the thick mantle of ice and snow, except to tint them in wonderful colors.
Majestic Country
1997 Oil on Canvas 20″ x 24″ unframed Sold Farmers in America might feel a little at sea if they had to take a boat to town, but it is not rare in Norway, and with prospects like these, who could mind being enisled?
Summer Dawn
2000 Oil on Canvas 24″ x 30″ unframed Sold Not far from here a friend lost the propeller of his boat motor, and the ensuing repair gave us occasion to make a whole new round of friends. On the hottest day of summer this water is so cold it will rob a person of breath, but it also yields up delicious fish, and in modest little weekend cabins like these, I have formed bonds of friendship that distance will never weaken.
After the Catch
2000 Oil on Canvas 18″ x 24″ unframed Sold The home-built boat has been beached, nets mended, and the cod, cleaned, split, and hung to dry beneath protective nets. Fishing this way is not easy, but the beautiful backdrop is more than a little compensation.
Night Sailing at Vika
1996 Oil on Canvas 12″ x 16″ unframed Sold We were spending the weekend with two friends in a cottage at Arnafjorden, and, after a very late dinner, the genial host proposed a boat tour of the neighboring shores. We had followed this little fjord, nameless save to the residents at its termination, where a pair of brothers tended their ancestral farms and sheer walls of rock imprisoned them on three sides. When we emerged, I was struck by the unearthly silence and the distinct planes of light and color which the midnight sun contrived.
Mountain Hytter
1996 Oil on Canvas 20″ x 24″ unframed Sold “Hytter” means huts, but a Norwegian’s hut may be just as fine as his house in town. Many of the people own a hut in the mountains or at the sea, or both, and everyone has at least access to one even if by rental. Centuries of science and progress have not diminished the Norwegians’ love of the outdoors, and with settings as peaceful as this one, they never will.
Hardangerfjord In Bloom
1998 Oil on Canvas 16″ x 20″ unframed Sold In May, with winter lingering on the higher altitudes, we made a car trip along this renowned fjord and some of its tributaries. Spring was everywhere in sights and smells. It seemed strange that the industrial town of Odda lay not so many miles to the south of this place, but easier to believe that these colorful blossoms would give way to sweet fruits.
Fishing Village
2000 Oil on Canvas 20″ x 24″ unframed Sold Before there were oil and gas, there were fish; after oil and gas, there will still be fish. Settlements like this are picturesque, and ideal for painting, true, but they are also hard-working places that help keep a nation well-fed.
Sigmund’s Birthplace
1999 Oil on Canvas 15″ x 30″ unframed Sold Rock is another commodity in great supply in Norway, but not even stone could stand against the great ice sheets that carved out the fjords and left the west coast liberally sprinkled with islands. From this particular granite mass the plucky Fedje lighthouse flashed out its warning beacon. And what of our dear friend, Sigmund? He was born quite close, on a patch of land on a nearby islet called Langoey.
Trail to Dyrhaug
1996 Oil on Canvas 20″ x 24″ unframed Sold “Dyrhaug” means animal hill, literally, but no animals were out combating the deep snow on this winter day. Not many cross- country skiers, though, could resist an opportunity to leave their signatures on this deep, fluffy expanse.