Sommerferie

It's that time of year when most of Scandinavia goes on holiday and we were no different. A visit to the in-laws followed by 3 days with one of Thomas' - and now my - friends was a much needed break, and opportunity to visit Sørlandet, the southern country, in Aust-Agder and Telemark. I thought I'd share some of the photos of the area we stayed in so that people who haven't been here have opportunity to see another part of Norway, away from the huge mountains and vast fjords of the west, and to see how pretty this area is. I also thought it might be interesting to see some photos and sketches together; differences will be quite apparent in what I've chosen to focus on or leave out, or to add in something that might not be there!

Appropriately, having arrived by water taxi, I drew a sketch from a kart of the area. It was a chart for boats, but in Norway maps are called 'kart'. It reminded me very much of the maps in the books of The Swallows and Amazons, The Famous Five or even Narnia. I added in a couple of extras that you wouldn't find on the boating map...

This was really fun to do, adding in potential camp sites, wreck sites and the odd Viking ship!

The place we stayed in was lovely; our friend's family hytte with a view over the islets and twists of rocky coastlines. It'd be a sailing paradise here with plenty of anchorage points and sheltered spots, although it could get a little busy with sometimes 5 or 6 boats!

The view from there to the boathouse was irresistible to sketch. The red painted wooden building (the same tone seems to be used throughout the country which gives a sense of unity), with the contrasting white window frames made it seem very much like a fairy tale.

In my sketch there's a slightly conspicuous white area; I still haven't come back to finish the boat off! I took a bit of artistic liberty with my sketch and reduced the number of windows and length of the boat house which was now more suitable for a rowing dinghy rather than a motor cruiser!




The colours people use to decorate their homes with are often very sympathetic to nature and seem to echo those you'd find in the environment. A mustard yellow on a nearby property could be found in the lichens on the rocks.

I liked the angles the two buildings in this photo presented so I made a rough sketch of them. Seeing the photo and the sketch next to one another, my eyes fall to obvious errors, but one of the 'fun' aspects of sketching is educating your brain to see what actually is there, rather than what you think is there. That said, I'm not sure I'd change it because I like the shapes as they are!

For a totally different feel, I sat on the terrace and sketched a small bay across from us, noticing how the tide changed. Tides here only change by about 50 cm, totally different to the UK, and another different I was interested to read about was how the salinity of the sea here is much less than the UK waters too. People tend to just live here in the summer months, partly because the sea ices over in the winter and so it becomes difficult to live here year-round. (My own private dream is not put off by that!).

One afternoon, Thomas and our friend went out kayaking so I took a small rowing dinghy across the small passage of water and nestled it at low tide, wedging the oars against the boat in thick, dark green, muddy sand. A swan paddled its way gracefully towards me but started hissing, though not at me. I turned around in time to see the shiny dark mahogany back of an adult mink, scuttling over the bank. Our friend mentioned that she'd seen baby mink under her hytte so I was really pleased to see one, although like ferrets and stoats, they are pretty voracious predators.

One of the aspects I really like about being near the water, is realising the importance of it for travel and exploration. That feeling must have been experienced by all sorts of different cultures and civilisations (not least the Vikings). For me, it was really interesting to see where we were staying from a totally different perspective, to understand more the lie of the land, the flow of the water, and to gain that fantastic feeling of travelling in a totally different way. Rowing was fun too; it's been many long years since I've done any and the coordination and strength in my right compared to left side, made the boat tend to want to circle rather than go straight. Just thinking about it now makes me grin!

It was really pleasant to be wedged in my boat, looking back to the hytte and at Thomas getting the kayaks ready while I was already sketching. In the photo you can also see the Tarp Tent Double Rainbow, set up and ready for me to curse at as I seam sealed it the following day...

Back to the present, I started the sketch on the boat, enjoying the buffeting of waves against me as slightly larger motor boats went by, mostly just small ribs with outboards, taking their cap'ns to Kragerø or nearby hamlets for provisions. Trying to make sense of the mass of boulders and rocks, and background trees and foliage was challenging, but I really enjoyed trying to embed the hytte into its surroundings much as our friend's Dad had done as he extended it from it's original wash house status into a 3 bedroomed cabin with kitchen and stue (living area). I really liked using the bushes at the front, making them creep over the white palings, which they did in real life; we were surrounded by lilac and gooseberry bushes!

I finished the sketch later on that day, sat in the living room, creating foliage and boulders and lichen out of my imagination. It was meditative and generally speaking, the act of sketching so much in these few short days helped me feel as if I'd had a much longer break. The challenge for me remains though; to do more sketching when not in such sublime company or environments!