Beauty has been a recurring theme in these writings of mine – it’s a concept constantly slipping away from any final definition. Andrew Wyeth, “Frostbitten” (1962), watercolor on paper (Private Collection. © Andrew Wyeth) In his book Why Beauty is Key to Everything Alan Moore writes: I have always been fascinated by beautiful things: architecture, furniture, books. Beautiful…
Still sketching
— even more! Nothing gave me more pleasure last year, than re-discovering the art of sketching and drawing. I have decided to pursue this joyful activity even more in the year to come, and to challenge myself into doing things I’ve never done before. And so I decided to start this year with a Sktchy…
2017 in books –
personal favourites: Ali Smith: Autumn Ali Smith: Winter Jesmyn Ward: Sing, Unburied, Sing Angela Palm: Riverine: A Memoir from Anywhere But Here Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich: The Fact of a Body Deborah Levy: Hot Milk Nina Riggs: The Bright Hour: A Memoir of Living and Dying According to Goodreads I read 76 books in 2017, it sounds a lot, but…
Regarding Hendrick Avercamp
Here is the text I planned to talk about in my last post, Michael Glover’s great little essay on Avercamp’s: Winter Landscape with Skaters – hereby recommended! Winter Landscape with Skaters is a 1608 oil on oak painting by the Dutch artist Hendrick Avercamp in the collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. * Many of Glover’s fine essays on art can be found…
Winter Landscape with Skaters
I read a short text today that made me think about the artistic origin of urban sketching. Winter Landscape with Skaters is a 1608 oil on oak painting by the Dutch artist Hendrick Avercamp in the collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Urban sketching, as a contemporary phenomenon, is indebted to the Seattle-based journalist and illustrator Gabriel Campanario, who in 2007…
Winter Grace
There is this poem by Patricia Fargnoli, which actually captures what I try to touch upon in my photos, in a wonderful way. Listen to this: Winter Grace by Patricia Fargnoli If you have seen the snow under the lamppost piled up like a white beaver hat on the picnic table or somewhere slowly falling into…
First snow –
– perfect ordinary magic!
too much work
& not enough time to play! Here is my published review of Chiharu Shiota’s exhibition in Bergen, (in Norwegian …). If you don’t read Norwegian (is this even possible, not mastering the great language of Norway … ???!), here is the gallery’s own text – in English Traveling up and down the cost of Norway, looking…
Back to work –
Back in Norway & back to work. The coming week I will be traveling to see & write about a new installation by the Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota, at KODE in Bergen. Chiharu Shiota gained wide international recognition after having represented Japan at the 56th Venice Biennial in 2015, with an installation called “The key in…
Regarding sketching …
Regarding sketching, I tend to think of my line & style as kind of simple, plain, minimalistic even. Reducing everything down to a bare minimum – that’s how I would like to do it. But at the moment my work is heading in a very different direction …?! In his splendid new book – Dare…
Imitate the habit of twilight – take time to open the well of color
Just a little while ago, Liz Steel asked, on her blog, the following question: Why do you sketch? Here is my answer: My sketching is – at the moment – a kind of mindfulness praxis. Mindfulness is usually defined as “a state of active, open attention on the present. When you’re mindful, you…
It’s all about the path
This is from the last pages of Frederick Franck’s The Zen of Seeing: Seeing/Drawing as Meditation (1973). It’s valid for me … maybe it speaks to you too? I want to say something about what I discovered to be valid for me, even though I am not sure it is valid for everyone. It concerns photography and…
