Lost 01

Description

Inspiration

This series of paintings is inspired by the childrens book “Ronja the Robbers daughter” by Astrid Lindgren. Her descriptions about childish astonishment and wonder about what nature has to offer, inspired the artist.

“Ronja wandered through the woods as always. It was very quiet there now, but she also liked it in the fall. The soft moss was green and damp under her bare feet, it smelled of autumn everywhere, and the branches of the trees glistened. It often rained. Ronja loved to huddle under a dense spruce and listen to the soft trickle. Sometimes the rain poured down so hard it made the forest hiss and she loved that too. Many animals were not to be seen. Her foxes stayed in their dens. But sometimes she could see moose emerging at dusk and wild horses grazing in the trees. […]

Furthermore, the forest was deserted in the fall. All creatures that used to live there were gone. They had, of course, crept deep into their burrows and hiding places. […]

It was a sunny morning and they felt as free as birds. It was as if it had only just now dawned on them. […]

They sat by their fire as the sun rose higher and higher, the river roared beneath them and the forest slowly awakened. The treetops swayed gently in the morning wind, here and there a cuckoo called, somewhere nearby a woodpecker tapped the trunk of a pine, and across the river a family of moose emerged from the woods. And the two of them took it all in. Ronja and Birk felt that the river and the forest and everything that lived there belonged to them. […]

The sky grew clearer and cooler. Some cold nights came and suddenly a birch above the river had yellow leaves in its top. Sitting by their fire early one morning, they saw it, but neither of them said anything about it. Wonderful days followed. They could look out over the green forests for miles, but now they discovered more and more yellow and red among all the green. It wasn’t long before the whole mountainside below them seemed a blaze of red and gold. They sat by their fire and both liked it, but they said nothing about it. […]

Summer passed slowly. The autumn rains announced themselves and soon proved so persistent that even Ronja could not stand them anymore, although she otherwise loved rain. […]

Finally it stopped raining. Instead, storms raged over the forest. Pines and spruces were torn from the ground, roots and all, and birch leaves flew through the air. Their golden glow was gone, and the slope above the river was now nothing but naked trees, swaying pitifully in the strong wind. […]”

From ‘Ronja the Robber’s daughter‘ by Astrid Lindgren

Views: 218