MIDNIGHT IN LAPLAND-JUNE 1ST, pastel

Midnight in Lapland-June 1st, pastel, 12x9 (30x22 cm)

Every night I'm flabbergasted by the beauty of the sky near midnight,  and its reflection on the Kultsjön Lake. I run around the house taking pictures from different windows, or from the front porch, or the side. So a couple of days ago I decided to start painting those midnight suns in pastel. I started by my first night here, June 1st. This was midnight sunset on June 1st.

I've been painting the midnight sun for the past three nights, and plan to continue doing so for at least a week. Some of them will make it to this blog. So stay tuned!

KULTSJÖN LAKE, SAXNAS, watercolor

Kultsjön Lake, Saxnas, watercolor 8x11 (20x28cm.)

In the Artist's Magazine July-August issue, I read an article about the master illutrator Tomie dePaola, where he says: "Being an artist is not like being a doctor, or a teacher, it's making something up out of nothing." Yes...he's right, we have a vision and try to set a mood, to communicate our dreams...on a flat piece of paper with water and some colors.

KULTSJÖN LAKE V, watercolor

Kultsjön Lake V, watercolor, 4x6 (10x15 cm.)

Kultsjön Lake is in Lapland, Sweden. For this month, I live in front of it at Ricklundgården. It is huge! I have only walked a couple of miles one way and the other way, making small sketches when the time permits, and taking photographs. There are many houses in the forest, near the lake, most of them are painted red, occasionally you find one in yellow or white. Here you breath viridian, and your eyes feast on cerulean and turquoise!

KULTSJÖN LAKE II, SWEDEN, watercolor

Kultsjön Lake II, Sweden, 4x6 watercolor

In the International Artist magazine June/July 2013 issue, Karen Benco's article "Look for Design in Nature" offers the following advice: "Re-design nature. Change Mother Nature to create a better design for a painting. " That is good advice, in general. However, here by Kultsjön Lake, in Saxnäs, Sweden, very little or nothing could be changed to improve nature. Her other piece of advice, "cropping", answers my needs at the moment. I find it frustrating to paint one flat watercolor of ONE view, when all around me, I have 360 degrees of lakes, forests, and a little red house here and there. I will keep trying!