Summer days in June, Skiphelle beach south of Oslo.

Life goes on

The summer has been different this year, mostly because of the pandemic, but also because of my situation. I have managed to gain my strength again and to paint again. Now I have moved myself and my husband to our little place in the mountains, – here there is peace and quiet. Lots of weather, both sun, rain and wind. June was fabulous, July is cold and wet.

One feels small under the high sky here in the mountains.

Sky high – high sky

Up here in the mountains, more than 800 m above sea level, the sky is high. I can really feel how small and insignificant I am, and how powerful nature is. The air is fresh and clean,  the colours strong and clear. Right now its is so green. This summer the white flower that looks like cotton, eriophorum, is all over the land and the swamps. It is so beautiful and a bit magic.

Eriphorium beside a little lake by the old mine Christianus Sextus
The mountain landscape where I am now

Nature’s own art

Being in nature like this, you have art around you all the time. Nature’s own art. It can be a rock, some flowers in a special setting, it can even be pollution. As is the case here at the site of the old copper mine. Christianus Sextus. One of my hikes were in this area, and I had to shoot some pictures. I find the colours and the formations fascinating.

Again the 'cotton flower' found in a polluted pond inside an old mine house
A tarnished old metal plate with some wood and some rocks, makes a perfect composition, like an abstract painting.
Reflections in the water in the old house
Here is part of the old mine, Christianus Sextus

Now some paintings

As you may remember, I am part of a paintings group run by Pamela Caughey in the USA. This group of painters have all gone through her extensive painting course Personal Design and Personal Colour. And quite regularly we have some challenges. Earlier this summer we had this challenge about surrealism, and one of the group members, Rob Smales, gave us a lecture about the surrealism movement in the art history. Some of the members followed up and painted surrealistic paintings, I was one of them. I found this quite fun, and after a while I felt it came ‘easily’ to me. Maybe I am a surrealist at heart? Anyway, here are a few of them.

'Swinging blue pants'. Painting with a surrealistic twist. Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 60 cm
'Pigeon on a fork and a loose leg'. 30 x 30 cm, Akryl på plate
'Imagination dance', 30 x 30 cm på plate, akryl
'You are the sunshine of my life', akryl, 30 x 30 cm, på plate

Christianus Sextus

I may have mentioned it before, but the old copper mine, Christianus Sextus, is located in our area here in the mountains. And every summer, the last 7 years, there has been arranged a professional play with stories from the great novel with the same name on the remnants of the mine. In open air. The novel by Johan Falkberget, trilogy, is about the life around the copper mines at Røros around year 1700. Especially about poor people who came across from Sweden to try to find work at the mines. Their life was hard with tough labour, famine and starvation. This year the play will be about little Gölin who walked with her grandfather and an old onelegged drunkard of a soldier over the mountains from Sweden and to the mining town of Røros and Christianus Sextus. Little Gölin’s grandfather, Tol Olofsson,  died during the migration, and in the end little Gölin and the soldier Brodde arrived at Røros and were taken in by the wealthy wife of the owner of the mine Christianus Sextus.

The actors and musicians are professional, and Lasse Kolsrud and Charlotte Frogner are two of the main actors. Every year this play has been arranged, I have had a show in an old stable at the mine, showing paintings, mostly watercolours, related to these stories. So I will this year too. Below are a few of the watercolours I will be showing.

Brodde, little Gölin and Tol walking through the harsh landscape marked by fires and famine.
Still walking through the burnt down forests and the naked landscape.
Little Gölin, Tol and Brodde are imagining the teen of Røros in the distance. Will they soon be there?

These events will take place Friday 31st of July, Saturday and Sunday 1st and 2nd August. If you are in the vicinity of Røros, you should try to see the play, the venue and my exhibition. (Ticketmaster). I am sure the play will move you to tears.

And it did. It was a fantastic performance. I am sorry this was not published as it should more than 3 weeks ago.

Anyway, I wish you all the best for the rest of the summer.