Elsa Beskow
by Maria Molin
Elsa Beskow (1874–1953) created her famous picture books at home in Stockholm, where she lived with her husband and their six sons. Her wild garden provided inspiration for the animated plants, and her children were often used as models for the characters in the books, even though their individual features disappeared on their way to the published illustrations. She began illustrating during her studies to become a drawing teacher at the Technical School in Stockholm. The feeling of freedom in nature is central to most of Elsa Beskow’s pictures and stories. During her childhood summers with her family on a farm in the Södertälje area, Elsa often lay on her stomach and studied the flowers on the ground. As an adult, she thought back to these summers as “a long series of sunlit festive days”. She was influenced by the Art Nouveau movement and Arts and Crafts plant ornamentation with winding stems, foliage and flowers. For her books, Elsa Beskow preferred to make the first sketches and drafts in pencil. She then created the models for the books’ color illustrations in watercolor with dark outlines, drawn with a thin brush or pen. Untill the 24th of May 2026 there is an exhibition of Elsa Beskow’s works at the Thielska Galleriet in Stockholm.
Wenche Landaas
by Vera Maria Gjermundsen
Wenche Landaas’ Landscape series came into being through a moment of accidental dissatisfaction: the tearing up of a watercolour landscape, painted on Khadi paper, which did not turn out as she wanted it to. Tearing up and creasing the paper then became an artistic method. Ever since she was a student at DTK – the Art School in Bærum, her process has been an exercise in restraint, in letting go, “so as not to kill the expression, not to lose the freshness”. It is essential for her to let the process flow in the direction it wants and to allow the light, transparent surfaces to remain unfinished. She says that time can help to accept that you don’t have to have to finish everything at once. The best things tend to happen when your attention is elsewhere. She is not a purist watercolour painter. She alternates between using watercolour and acrylic paint, between three-dimensional sculptural objects, and organic recycled materials. Even when she uses watercolor, she approaches the components in a free and uncontrollable manner without an obvious message hoping that the water, the brushes, the paper, and the colors can express something that lies beyond her own understanding. She wants the viewer to search and find their own story in her works.
Michaela Casková
by Sofia Simelius
Through a double master’s degree in book design and art education in her native Czech Republic, Michaela Casková has been able to explore interdisciplinary artistic methods. She describes her material-based practice as a constant learning process, and she has been involved in developing educational material for children about the forest ecosystem. She moved to Finland in 2013 after a friend tipped her off about the artist association Mustarinda. The association is one of the first in Finland to bring together artists and researchers with a focus on environmental issues and the ecological reconstruction of society. Michaela Casková has been collecting materials from nature since childhood, inspired by her mother who used to pick medicinal plants. She has a desire to be outdoors as much as possible and to consciously create artistic practice from everyday activities. She has begun to collect and make her own pigments and paints from plants and mushrooms. Yet the lifespan of her homemade paints are not as long as that of commercially produced watercolor pigments, which raises questions about the value of art.
Current exhibition: ”Imaginära landskap” (Imaginary landscapes)
by Anna Sörenson Rydh
In his childhood Håkan Bull spent his summers on Käringön. There were water lily ponds on the island, but the children were often warned not to go too close. The ponds could be much deeper and more dangerous than they looked. There were marshes with beautiful water lilies, but you could be sucked into them, he was warned. When Håkan Bull was nine years old, his grandmother died. She was lying in an open coffin in one of the houses on the island. The children were advised not to look in, but when they did anyway, they saw their grandmother lying there with a bouquet of white water lilies on her chest. The water lily ponds were both beautiful and dangerous. Ponds and water surfaces have a kind of similarity to painting when it comes to flatness and the illusion of depth. An above and an below – but the content is also personal and beauty is not always completely harmless, which is why the paintings have been given the titles “The Bottomless Pond”. Together with a group of 5 artists Håkan Bull takes part in the group exhibition “Imaginary Landscapes” at the Chinese Cultural Centre in Stockholm until the 30th of May.
Recognition: Helen Eriksdotter
by Anna Sörenson Rydh
NAS member Helen Eriksdotter has become the first Swede in modern times to be awarded the AWS Bronze Medal of Honor at the 159th International Exhibition of the American Watercolor Society (AWS) in New York. She states: “It is an enormous honor. It feels fantastic to be able to carry the Swedish watercolor tradition forward on the big world stage”. Helen Eriksdotter has also been selected as “Top Rated Artist” at the International Watercolor Masters (IWM) in England in 2026 and as a finalist in the prestigious global competition “Splash 27: The Best of Watercolor 2026”.
Book tip: ”Akvarell i Norden” (Watercolour in the Nordic region – studio visits)
by Anna Sörenson Rydh
Anita Midbjer (artist and writer) has researched and worked with watercolour since the 80s. She became well-known in 2008 for her thesis on the Swedish professor and artist Arne Isacsson. For her newest book she has visited and interviewed 18 prominent Nordic watercolour artists in their studios. The book “Watercolor in the Nordic Region, Studio Visits” has now been published by Votum Media and is an inspiring book for everyone, not just watercolour painters. The interviews are anchored in each individual artist’s practice and the artists’ own stories. They make the portraits pleasantly free from current events and successes, the type of commercial framing that characterizes so much else written about art. Anita Midbjer’s aim was that the book should be something everyone interested in watercolour art would want on their bookshelf. It is well-crafted and rests on a rich story, told with feeling – without becoming exotic or sentimental. It is a truly inspiring book, a book to return to many times for painters as well as watercolour lovers. The book is available for purchase in bookstores and online.
Residency, Nordic Watercolour Museum: Annette Gustafsson
Motivation from the Nordic Watercolour Museum:
Anette Gustafsson is an outstanding watercolorist. Her art captures the subtle moods of nature and the changing light takes on a rare lyrical power. She works with an intuitive and at the same time technically advanced watercolour language where pigment and water are allowed to interact in a way that captures both movement and stillness. In her visual world, sea, horizon and open landscapes meet in depictions inviting the viewer into a poetic space of light and deepening layers of color.
Annual Meeting 14.03 and Winsor & Newton Prize 2026
by Anna Sörenson Rydh
The day’s program was arranged by the Norwegian country representative Olga Koelsch. We started after lunch with a workshop by Kasia Wiercínska who showed us how to create a rainy cityscape. All participants received paper from Arches to test Kasia’s techniques on and also brushes and paints from Daler Rowney. After the workshop we had the pleasure of awarding Kasia Wiercínska this year’s Winsor and Newton Prize. You may read the interview with Kasia Wiercínska in the magazine issue 1:2025. After a coffee break, Olga lectured on the theme of the development of landscape painting in art history. She gave an insight into the development of perspective, color and contemporary interpretations of landscape. In the afternoon, Norwegian watercolor painter Efe Arabaci gave a painting demonstration of marine motifs. As usual, we ended with the NAS annual meeting where Berit Barkin presented the society’s budget and I, as the editor, said a few words about the new digital magazine platform. Ann Larsson-Dahlin and Hanne Nielsen were re-elected as board members for 2 years. Páll Tryggvason (Iceland) and Victoria Björklund (Finland) were elected as new board members for 2 years, replacing Benita Suomi and G. Àrmann Sigurjònsson. Benita Suomi continues as ECWS coordinator. Malin Redvall continues as a member of the nomination committee.
ECWS* | SAP – Polish Watercolour Society
by Marianne Gross
The European Confederation of Watercolour Societies was founded in 1998 to internationally promote the art of watercolour painting and to encourage cooperation among national and regional watercolour societies. The Polish Watercolorists’ Association was registered in Warsaw in 2011. A year later the society was accepted into the ECWS (European Confederation of Watercolorists). The aim of the Association is the friendly communication of artists and the social work of all members aimed at promoting and supporting watercolor painting and the achievements of the Association’s members through various activities which include running a gallery for members, publishing printed material such as painting albums and textbooks and organizing and/or participating in Polish and international exhibitions and art events In September 2026 the Polish Watercolour Society will organize the XXVIIII symposium of the ECWS in Danzig.