A Mountain of Colour
?? ???????????????? ???? ????????????
“The smaller we come to feel ourselves compared to the mountain, the nearer we come too participating in its greatness. I do not know why this is so.”
Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess
Imagine being at an art gallery and studio looking out on a crystal clear lake – Breimsvatnet – filled with water coming directly from a nearby glacier. Galleri Skarstein is in Kandal, a small village with a population of 87 that stretches along the shore of the lake for about 5 kilometres. Towards the south is the grand view of mount Skjorta, almost towering vertically up from the lake surface. It is here, in this magic and majestic area, that we will paint, exploring the shifts in colour of the mountain, lake and valley in the midst of the summer, with its almost endless light. This will be the fourth time we have a wildpainting course at this place, with Astrid Kallhovd as our host and excellent cook!
Not far from here, a century ago, Nikolai Astrup, one of Norway’s most famous painters lived and worked. He said: “I wished … to wash myself in the raw colours of Western Norway in order to cleanse myself of everything that I may have ingested from the art of others in order to escape from all influences and to arrive at my own style.”
And elsewhere he stated that people from Western Norway have the opportunity “to observe the untouched colour because of the close proximity of the sea makes the air so pure that all colours appear intact as though they are near”.
Image: Marsh Marigold Night, Nikolai Astrup, 1915
Artist, Art Educator, Curator and Exhibit Designer, part-time ESL instructor
2 年Inspirational! Where do you teach?