FLOWER SHOP IV

FLOWER SHOP IV

5x7 oil on canvas covered board

frame has a rich mahogany finish

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE

When you visit your relatives or friends

first

visit the flower shop

Take flowers 

OR 

small paintings  as a gift

FLOWER SHOP III

Flower Shop III
Framed, 6x8 oil on museum quality board
Available soon at upcoming show

FLOWER SHOP III

 6x8, oil on museum quality board.

I am painting a series of flower shops for an upcoming show at the New Mexico Cancer Center Gallery, a NM top ten gallery. More information will be posted soon.

Oslo, Norway,  New Year's Eve Day, 2013, shops were open though little else was.  The day was misty, warm, and no snow was anywhere to be seen.  On this day in Oslo there was about six hours of daylight, an increase of three hours over that which I had experienced only days earlier in the Arctic.

 This was a most unusual trip, with many experiences never had before and likely never to be experienced again.  I am truly grateful and
recommend we always be ready to delight in the
 unknown.

KJØLLEFJORD, NORWAY PARISH CHURCH, Day 17 of Thirty Day Challenge

Kjøllefjord, Norway Parish Church
5x5 oil on canvas
Click here to purchase.

KJØLLEFJORD, NORWAY CHURCH

Kjøllefjord Church (Norwegian,  Kjøllefjord kirke) is a parish church in Finnmark county, Norway (located within the Arctic Circle). The white, stone church was built in 1951 and was a gift from Denmark after the Second World War. It was also the first church that was rebuilt in Finnmark county after the war.

On Christmas Day, I along with many other people walked about twenty minutes to this church carrying very large candles.  Though it was only 2:00 PM it was already getting quite dark.  We attended a Christmas service here, entirely in Norwegian.

Lighting the Torches

Walk to the church

Church Interior

"FLOWER SHOP, NORWAY" Day Fifteen of the Thirty Paintings in Thirty Day Challenge SOLD

"FLOWER SHOP, NORWAY"  6X8, unframed, oil on museum quality board, suitable for framing or displaying on a tabletop easel. 

There are flower shops every two blocks or so as Norwegians always take flowers when they visit.  I met for the first time my Norwegian cousins in Gran, Norway and was ever so grateful when I got that "early morning nudge" to take flowers with me.  

NORWEGIAN ARCTIC PRESCHOOL, Day 14 of the Thirty Paintings in Thirty Day Challenge

NORWEGIAN ARCTIC PRESCHOOL
8x6 oil on museum quality board
Click here to purchase

"NORWEGIAN ARCTIC PRESCHOOL"

On my recent trip to Norway, four days were spent in the Arctic Region of the country.  While on a working/cruise ship traveling north, I met an Early Childhood Preschool Teacher who recently moved to Hammerfest, Norway (county Finnmark) from Denmark to teach in a nearby preschool.  Annette told me a bit about the preschool and shared a few photos.  During the shortest days of the year, indeed while I was there, only three hours of blue daylight exist.  The sun never rises during those three hours (and of course never sets in summer).  Here at the preschool you will see that the children wear reflector vests to be seen well.

The little town of Hammerfest is the northernmost town on Earth.    Besides that distinction, Hammerfest became the first European town to have electric lighting when it purchased a generator from Thomas Edison in 1891.  Those early street lights must have been a big blessing.

 The Hammerfest Harbor, Norwegian and Barents Seas are always ice free due to the warm water of the Gulf Stream.  Though I always dressed warmly on this trip, I was never cold.

CHRISTMAS 2013

First Step in Decorating

My grandson Eli and I
are going on the
ADVENTURE
of our lifetimes.

Going, doing, eating, experiencing
CHRISTMAS
as we have never before experienced it.


NORWAY


So
I planned no decorating at home
until
I just had to
even though I won't even be here

Here are my first steps
Need more red and
tons of fresh greenery



Below is a link to the most uplifting
beautiful
videos I have seen.

Enjoy

http://www.wimp.com/upliftingaffirmations/

Fjord Spring

Fjord Spring
Little Gem
6x8 oil on canvas mounted

"Fjord Spring" 6x8 oil on canvas mounted on board with a black painted edge, suitable for framing or placing on a tabletop easel.

Norway is about landscapes, water, mountains, snow, waterfalls and varying landscapes based on a number of latitudes.  The color most often seen if BLUE.  This painting is the essence of peace and tranquility.

Click here to buy on dailypaintworks.com

Flam Valley, Norway II

Flam Valley, Norway II
Little Gem
oil on canvas mounted on board

FLAM VALLEY, NORWAY II"


Landscapes are my favorite genre.  Norway is my favorite European country.  If you haven't been there, you surely must go.  The walls of the fjords are very steep and beautiful.  Water flows from melting snow creating thundering powerful falls.  The smart Norwegians channel the falls into huge tubes which are part of their power plants (hidden in the mountains) used to generate electricity.

Peace is the essence of this painting.  Peace and beauty.

Click here to purchase on dailypaintworks.com.

JUST ONE MORE DAY

Snow Melt
6x6 oil on canvas mounted

Just one more day before I begin theThirty Paintings in Thirty Days challenge arranged by Leslie Saeta.  I will be painting "New Mexico Landscape and Architecture" for thirty days temporarily leaving painting Norway.  Sign up by email on my blog to receive my daily painting and to enter a raffle to win one of those thirty paintings given out on October 1.

An interesting tidbit about SNOW MELT (available for auction); located in Norway, Stalheim literally means "home of the horses", so named because of the awful hairpin curves on the narrow road to Stalheim.  Here the horses were rested before continuing on their journey.  Riders walked beside their horses getting to this location due to the steepness of the road.  Thankfully in the 1970's oil was discovered in the North Sea providing Norway with the funds to build roads in the fjord area.

SIGN UP FOR MY RAFFLE

Spring Light
6x8  oil on canvas mounted

Sign up for my Raffle

I’ve decided to offer one of my Daily Paintings for subscribers to my blog.  Subscribe there and you will receive email notifications whenever I post a new painting to my DailyPaintworks for auction. In September I am participating in lesliesaeta.blogspot.com Thirty Paintings in Thirty Day challenge.  I am really excited about this.

And all subscribers will automatically be entered into the raffle, to be drawn October 1, 2013.   There is also a link to my blog www.carolhopper.blogspot.com on my website.


Sorry this painting is sold.

Norwegian Painter, Sophus Jacobsen

This summer I had the most wonderful opportunity to be in Norway and to see a few original pieces of art by Sophus Jacobsen.  His winter scenes brought me to tears with their beauty.  Norway in winter is pretty dark as you can imagine and I found that Jacobsen captured that limited light perfectly.  The city of Oslo is on the same latitude as Anchorage, Alaska.            

 

 

 

 I will be returning to Norway over the Christmas holidays for skiing with my grandson.  This will also give me an opportunity to see more of Jacobsen's art.  Can anyone advise me on a great place to ski in Norway and activities a teenager might enjoy?                                                    

 Oil Painting by Sophus Jacobsen

Snow Melt

Rushing Snow Melt

The Norwegian landscape still has a mighty hold on me.  It is such a contrast to my life in the desert of NM...but I remind myself I grew up in very green Minnesota, land of 10,000 lakes and in a Norwegian community at that! My maiden name was Thoreson, which means son of Thore.  And if you know mythology, Thore was the son of  Thunder.

The fjord area of western Norway has fairly high mountains and in spring the snow melt gushes down the mountain sides with a mighty roar.  I wish I could paint the roar.

While in Norway I saw many paintings by 19th century Norwegian masters.  My favorite paintings were winter scenes.  So in December, I will return to Norway...to ski, to paint, to see the northern lights and spend some time in the Arctic and of course to visit some of my Thoreson cousins.

To purchase click on the link under the photograph.

ARTIST JOURNEY...SUMMER TRAVELS

NORWAY...a trip of a lifetime.  This trip was pretty fast paced and there wasn't time to paint even with water color.  There was time for quick sketches and plenty of photographs.

Norway promotes a trip called "Norway in a Nutshell".  I wasn't on that trip, only a portion of it.  This valley is looking back toward Flam;  river and waterfalls are at their peak.

This is a Little Gem, only 6x8 oil on canvas mounted on board, framed and can be purchased through the New Mexico Cancer Center by clicking on Little Gem.

It is so much fun to take liberties with one's painting.  I pushed color and of course did my best to paint with loose strong strokes.

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