English Summary 4-2008

With the icebreaker “Oden” in the Arctic Ocean
By Svenerik Jakobsson
In June 2008, Svenerik Jakobsson joined one of the expeditions of the Swedish Polar Secretariat to the Arctic Ocean. He brought with him his large watercolour case and a collection of watercolour tubes from the “blue scale”. The spiny contours of the Spitsbergen with inspiring views were seen all the time the first four days. As the ocean was ice-free during the first days of the northward trip, and the rolling moreover not particularly troublesome, it was perfect to paint. But, of course, there are problems as the boat moves forwards all the time. One has to quickly decide on a “section” and then finish the painting more or less “by ear”. Despite the short duration of the expedition, it was full of experiences and gave inspiration to continue the work on etchings of polar bears and landscapes from sketches and photos upon homecoming.

Gunilla Rosenberg
By Jacqueline Stare
After studies for years in both Stockholm and Göteborg, Gunilla Rosenberg moved to Denmark where she now has lived for about thirty years. She is retired since some time back and devotes her time to painting and to her dogs, of the giant-like breed Alaska Malamute. It is the first time in all the years that she now has gotten the possibility of being able to paint full-time. It feels remarkable as well as great to her to finally be able to concentrate on her artistry.The watercolours of her dogs belong to her newer pictures and have, i.a.,been exhibited in Norway. But she also likes to depict the human body.

Birgith Swahn-Persson
By Lasse Sandström
Birgith Swahn-Persson attended the Skånska Målarskolan in the 1970´s and the Glyptotek Drawing and Painting College in Copenhagen in the beginning of the 1980´s. She gave up oil painting rather soon and started with watercolour painting, which she finds more exciting as it is a medium that lives. She does not feel bound to the fact that the watercolours should be transparent, her pictures are often covered with layers having been painted many times and giving a juicy colour. What mainly characterizes Birgith Swahn-Persson´s wilful and personal watercolours is nature, narrated graphically and with resolute lines. The previously conceptual painting has been replaced by green fields in geometric figures, squares and rectangles. During the course of the years, the motifs have tended to become more and more abstract.

Kristinn G. Hardarson
By JKB Ransu
Kristinn G. Hardarson was among the first to graduate from the new media department at the School of Arts and Crafts in Reykjavik in 1977. The new media department was driven by conceptual impetus, but conceptual art had had a strong impact on the Icelandic art scene during the late 60´s and 70´s whereas artists sought ways to express themselves ideologically. Being spawned from a long tradition of literature, much rather than visual arts, Icelandic conceptual art was (and is) generally narrative. Such is also the case with Kristinn G. Hardarson. He paints without florid or smart gestures, just straight forward and casual illustrations to explain what he sees. Kristinn G. Hardarson began to develop what he later called “Journeys”, an ongoing project of documenting his environs, taking explicit walks and mapping them in journals. Kristinn G. Hardarson is what one might call “a low-key artist”. His work radiates placidity and his artistic eye is always focused on the beauty of everyday life. Never on the exceptional but rather the unexceptional, where he finds and points out the magic of the mundane.

About water
By Bo Sundström
The water with which you use to paint your watercolours is the same water that has existed on earth for millions of years. Perhaps a dinosaur 200 million years ago drank exactly the water molecules that you have in your waterbowl. You just borrow the water for a short while and when it evaporates it passes into water vapour which then finally ends up in a cloud that gives precipitation somewhere else on the globe. The article then brings up the build-up of water molecules, water contained in the air, the cycle of water, evaporation of water, different kinds of water, additions to water at painting and various ways of adding water and colour at painting.

Andrew Wyeth: Helga on Paper, Adelson Galleries, New York
By Peter Vilhelm Nielsen
The Helga pictures are a number of pictures in the form of pencil drawings, watercolours, drybrush and tempera, which Andrew Wyeth made of the model Helga Testorf. The first pictures were painted in 1971, when Helga was 32 years old, and the last in 1985. It concerns a collection of all in all 240 pictures, which, when published in 1986, attracted great attention, i.a., because of the artist´s keeping the collection secret for years.

Painting days at the Nansen School
By Jacqueline Stare
The Nansen School was founded in Lillehammer, Norway, in 1938. Its aim passed all political and religious borders and it was supposed to safeguard humanistic values in the spirit of the Greek philosopher Platon (427-347 B.C.) as well as the Norwegian scientist and humanist Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930). After two years of activity, the Nazis closed the school. The ideology of the school was contrary to all what the occupiers stood for. Watercolour courses have been held at the Nansen School in Lillehammer every year since Morten Paulsen and Arne Isacsson started them in 1997. Every year, Morten Paulsen has required that a model takes part. For everybody having sketched it goes without saying that it is a question of practice and practice again. Just like in the watercolour painting, you have to put up with the fact that if you do not work persistently and regularly it is almost like starting from the beginning when you then stand in front of the model or the water colours.