I'm at the Apple Festval at Gvarv today - talking to norwegian makes as part of our Norwegian Made project. I just finished a long conversation with the man who made these beautiful, handcarved cups, which I bought by the way, learning so much about wood woodworking and really enjoying myself. How I love my work!

Wabi sabi is a japanese aesthetic ideal, 
cherishing the beauty of the worn. 
As everybody who knows me or my art will know,
this is an aesthetic which is very close to my heart.

I see and appreciate this kind of worn beauty 
everywhere I go,
and few things make me happier;
the tainted wood of an old barn,
last year's seed pod,
a worn and mended garment from the past,
giving testimony of hardship and thrift
and telling somebody's story.

As part of an art project from the duo Abraham & Sax,
this year I've written an essay a month
on topics regarding aesthetic philosophy and art. 
Last mont's essay was about the wabi sabi aesthetic.
You can read the whole text here. 

Look what the forest "gave" me yesterday!
Somebody's garden waste is my forest paradise these days.

Yesterday was spent in the screen print studio of Pål Gunnes
at his beautiful farm in the forest of Siljan,
working with prints for our Norwegian Made project.

We feel so lucky to know Pål
and to be able to use his skills and expertise.

These prints will be turned into pillows, pouches and kitchen towels,
which we will sell to endorse our
support-the-makers project Norwegian Made. 

We hope to be able to open our web shop this fall 
where we'll sell these Norwegian Made promo products.

These days we're sending out our Norwegian Made bookmarks. 

We would very much like you to be part of our community reclaiming traditional norwegian values and we need your help to spread the word. If you want to be a Norwegian Made ambassador please let us know and we'll send you a gift as a token of appreciation along with some

This is my tuesday morning portrait class.
This week we were working with the grisaille layer of the portrait
- the layer where we work up the values of the face
using just paine's grey and white.

Next week we'll start painting with the full palette,
using all the colors of the color wheel.
That's when it starts to look like something.

The concentrated ambiance 
of people deeply focused,
is something quite special. 

Afterwards one feels tired but so welcomely recreated!

Our family are foragers 
- we really like to harvest what earth has to give us, 
all for free.
These days nature is bounty full
when it comes to mushrooms. 
And all four of us
are having a blast!