Almost halfway done with the Residency and life has been good. For those of you just tuning in I’m on my third Art Residency in northern Sweden at Ricklundgården, a non profit Art Residency program generously sponsored by the Emma Ricklund foundation.
My first Residency was in Juneau with the Alaska State Parks about a year ago where I completed landscape paintings en plein aire.
My second Residency was off the north coast in remote Iceland where I completed paintings for my first children’s book.
I was fortunate to receive this third Residency in northern Sweden where I’m working on my second children’s book.
With all of my residencies, I’m able to bring my family, which I feel very fortunate for.
Jonah and Josh painting and writing.
Everyone has been feeling the creative energy in this beautiful place.
Jonah has been painting up a storm and has filled a wall with about as many paintings as I have, aptly titling each one.
Josh has a writing nook where he’s been pouring through his writings over the years working on a philosophy manifesto.
It’s really special to be able to work with my two loves in this beautiful space.
As you can see the illustrations for my book are blooming beautifully and have copious color and life. I’ve really lived working with watercolor this time around.
The studio is a great space, I have much light during the day.
And i I have the most beautiful sunsets to paint from at night when I feel inspired to landscape paint, taking a break from my book.
Here you can see, similar to our midnight sun in Alaska, a sunset at 11:45 pm, this view I fall in love with every morning when I wake up from our window.
We eat, cook, live and play in this room with a view.
We make sure to play too, in Sweden’s beautiful wilderness. Here Josh is brown trout fishing on the Ransarå river.
Jonah and I cheer on dad, eat peanut butter and lingonberry jam (lingonberry is like the apple or orange of the US, it’s their main juice, jam, reduction sauce, everything… it’s tart and delicious like the cranberry) sandwiches, and throw stones in the river.
Josh spent 9 glorious hours on the river and found waterfalls he says almost best views in Alaska for fishing.
He caught glorious brown trout which we feasted on for dinner.
Jonah thought dad was pretty awesome.
We love these waterfalls and gravitate to them often to hike, fish, and play.
Can’t wait to share more progress on the book illustrations as well as writing throughout Residency. The book title has been formed and I’ve started dialogue on the book, I wish I could tell you more but I love the element of surprise, so thanks for your patience! 🙂 Love from Sweden!