Friday

Tomorrow we will be driving down to Skåne, located at the very southern tip of Sweden. There they have a nice sandy coastline with an abundance of dunes where I have done many a painting. The easel is already in the car! This is where Elsie’s family comes from, and I should add that it is a very large family tree down there. It feels like most of the members of the village are some how related to her is some way or another. From here the drive will take about nine hours, even more since they are doing all this road construction through Stockholm. It would be nice if you could by-pass the city, but since it is surrounded by water the closest alternative would be hundreds of kilometers out of the way to the west.

One of the problems about being an artist, especially around relatives, is that you are asked on occasions to use your artistic ability in some way or another; be it to judge what looks best or if a color works well with something. Such was the case with Karin’s sister; they wanted to know if I wouldn’t mind throwing something up on the wall of their back porch. Its basically a three seasoned enclosed area which they have painted white inside and then realized it could use a little extra color here and there. They gave me artistic license to come up with something, so I painted a quick vine with flowers on it. I guess it’s one of the perks of having an artist in the family! Actually in Sweden painted furniture is quite common and during the long cold winters became quite an art form. Each region of the country developing it’s own distinctive style. A tour through Anders Zorn or Carl Larsson’s house and you will really notice the meticulously painted cabinet doors and furniture painted from the area.

Richard Boyer