This is the third time we have visited Sweden, and each time I’m blown away by the stunning diversity of the landscapes you encounter here. Everywhere I look, I see a painting! Sometimes when I am painting outside in the Netherlands I feel as if I am doing something that is not part anymore of modern life. But that’s perhaps also because there’s less and less space for nature. Here in Sweden you don’t get that feeling at all. There is a vastness to it, and painting in nature feels as a natural way to join in. There is no role for questioning whether painting nature is something that belongs in our modern time. Nature cannot be celebrated enough!
Today we visited Valöns Naturereserve. Vast flat and rounded rockformations, with subtle color variations. Pink quartz alternates with patches of grey granite. In between the cracks there’s room for heather, grasses and moss. On the stones there are patches of vibrant warm yellow lichen, but also of a special type of green, like mixing chromium oxide with a bit of Indian yellow. Such special colors. You wouldn’t find those in a forest. Then there is the wind. It was a relatively warm day, and mixing in the wind made it feel as if being in a sci-fi movie. This is a place where natural white noise is being created.
