I’m back today from my painting
trip to Scandinavia. I’ve been away for
two weeks to Norway and Denmark but it feels like much longer. It has on
certainly been an odyssey of sorts that has covered many miles, locations, and
emotions: from dark forests to crystal seas and fjords; abandoned cabins and
Viking ships; long drives through beautiful green landscapes and ocean journeys
with naples yellow and crimson sunsets; painting by torchlight to painting in
the blinding sunshine.
I had written this pre-trip blog,
but failed to post it in the last minute rush of final preparations:
‘In a few hours time I’m driving
to Stansted Airport for an early flight to Oslo, Norway tomorrow morning on the
first leg of my trip to Scandinavia. We will be staying in a cabin in the
forest of an artist friend near Bastad (unfortunately named!), about an hour
from Oslo. We’re hiring a car and from this base will be making excursions to
Oslo to visit some of the galleries and museums (and the Viking Museum!), and
also to places such as Kristainsund on the coast, where Edvard Munch based many
of his paintings. On Friday we will then travel by ferry overnight to
Copenhagen, where, in another car, we will be making our way to Vejby Strand, a
half hour up the coast to a summerhouse we have rented for the week. In
Denmark, I’ll be meeting and working with artist Jamie Wallace and his wife,
Mette Christensen, and painting on location along the coastline. This will be
combined with trips to Copenhagen to visit the galleries etc, and also possibly
discuss my work at The Danish University of Education.
It’s all going to be an adventure
that’s for sure, and hopefully will fulfill a long held ambition to attempt to
create work on location.’
Well, there is something said
about the best laid plans and all that, and this isn’t really how things worked
out, but I’m not going to go into it now. I thought it might be better to write
a few shorter episodic blogs about the trip over the next few weeks as the
mental dust settles…
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