Høvikodden
From Høvikodden, although more distant, there is a direct view towards Kolsås in the North. In placing Winterstudio in the same direction, I thought it would also become the main subject of my own work. I soon discovered this was not the case. When I painted with the students at the foot of the mountain, its presence was unavoidable. We captured the undulating form of the mountain from the side rather than head on as Monet had situated himself. At Høvikodden, the fact that the mountain was further away and the use of smaller boards made Kolsås function more as a backdrop. Furthermore, the vertical view of the mountain felt fragmented, cut horizontally by the highway and the boatyard, which highlighted selected details in the landscape. In working out new paintings, my interest gradually turned towards observing the changes taking place on the water in front of me: boats in the boatyard across the bay, the appearance of the full moon and the melting ice.
Sign of Spring
The observation of birds returning for summer was a point of departure for Sign of Spring. The painting was made from memory inside. The sweeping gestures made with large brushstrokes in the sky move in opposite direction of smaller black marks used to indicate birds. Some of the board is left exposed to give a sense of movement to the painting, as if the subject was not properly framed within its borders. In other paintings made from direct observation, such as Skylight, I observed the sky from within the studio and the architecture itself served as a framing device, which made the painting more self-contained.
Bastard
While sailors were putting their boats in the water and going over the rigs, I heard on the radio that the explorer Jarle Andhøy had lost his boat and his crew in the Antarctic. This juxtaposition of events informed the painting Bastard, which is dominated by the reflection of a boat in the water. A person stands on deck with a heavy load. These kinds of simultaneous occurrences blurred the distinction between painting from direct observation and painting from memory and imagination.
