Tromsø art museum has some beautiful landscapes of the North, painted in colours which brilliantly capture the light up here. The permanent exhibition on the second floor houses a really impressive collection of oil paintings. Yet the first time I visited, a month or so ago, I was more struck by a small drawing in the show on the ground floor. It was an image of Draugen - The Ghoul of the Sea - and it was done by Theodor Kittlesen.
Kittelsen, who died in 1914 at the age of only 55, is famous for drawing scenes from Norwegian folk tales, most notably images of trolls. Whenever I'd seen his work before it had been a bit more cartoonish than this Draugen (slightly different from the one above) and seemed a bit lighter. Not only was this image skillfully done, it seemed to have in it all the feeling of a man lost at sea. Or just the feeling of a man lost. It made me question where Draugen came from, whether he had been something else once, a long time ago.
Not so far from here there is an Island where Draugen is known to have surfaced and taken a man down into the water. The place bears his name.
Once you've lived through a north-Norwegian winter you can start to understand where the stories of trolls came from. Everything is on such a vast scale that it seems reasonable to believe humans share the land with something much bigger. In the darkness it seems very clear that certain stones used to be something else. In the days before electricity and motor transport, how many animals and people must have simply disappeared?
As for Draugen; the first time I stood beside the fjord I felt certain I was waiting for something to surface.
Are any of these things real? That seems like the wrong question. I'm not sure we should be so concerned with what is literally true.
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An exhibition of 74 paintings depicting the beauty of Bali and Java is being held at Duta Fine Arts Foundation gallery in South Jakarta until Oct. 25.
Magical paintings showing off the beautiful landscape of Mount Bromo in East Java; a lotus pond in Tabanan, Bali; as well as the romantic Lotus Temple in Bebetin, Bali, are among visual offerings in the gallery.
“If you’re coming all the way from Holland, a place where everything is very organized, to Bali and Java, you’ll get a very different view and feeling. These islands are exotic and mystical.
“For me, it’s [Indonesia] my second home,” said Pierre Guillaume, telling the story behind his take on Bali and Java for the paintings.
In this collection, Guillaume has aimed to express happy feelings through his paintings.
“I don’t like depressing paintings. I like happy ones because I’m a very optimistic person. I like to laugh a lot. It’s my nature to express my happy feelings in painting because the world is not nice. If I can evoke good feelings in people through my paintings, that’s just great,” said Guillaume.
The painter said that he learned the idea of freeing himself to be happy from children.
He said that when he found a spot to paint, often times he would find self being surrounded by curious local kids.
Indeed, kids have become another favorite subject for Guillaume’s paintings, besides scenery.
In a painting entitled Jacklyn in Pink Kebaya, for example, Guillaume portrays a cute little girl in a pink Balinese kebaya under a blossoming tree.
Other pieces such as Children Enjoying the Sea at Kubutambahan Beach; Children Playing in the Sea Lovina, Bali; Children Bathing at Lovina Beach, Bali; Little Balinese Girl Playing on Sanur Beach, Bali, also capture the purity of children in beautiful landscapes.
In terms of scenery, Perahu at Benoa Harbor, Bali, captured the attention of the exhibition’s visitors during its opening. With the perfect mix of colors, joyful feelings are sparked in viewers.
He also created splendid paintings Rice Field Near Bromo, Java; Temple Gate, Danau Kintamani, Bali; Golden Sawah, Sangsit Beji, Bali; and Peaceful Time in front of Jinang Dalam Temple, Bali.
“I’m quite critical of myself. If I’m not so sure about the painting during the making process, I will throw it away.
“When you start to paint, you have to feel the eagerness. If you don’t have that feeling, you must stop. And do it all over again. I always do that,” said Guillaume, adding that the whole paintings in the exhibition were made with heart.
Coming from a family deeply in love with the arts (Guillaume’s father is 86 and still plays saxophone in a big band), drawing became a natural activity for the artist.
“When I was a child, I hated school […] I was quite different from other kids at school. I was never part of a group of friends, never played soccer or joined clubs. I created my own world; sitting in my room, playing, enjoying the time,” he said.
Guillaume has also released the book A Dutch Impressionist Artist in Indonesia, as a reference for the exhibition.
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