Knitting ladies

Everyone is knitting! There is a knitting revolution here in Iceland, and I love it, ...I mean I don't love to knit, but I love drawing people when they are knitting! I especially love their facial expressions, they get all so serious!

Little birdie

This little birdie is a detail of one of the illustrations I am working on now, which is a series of Santa-Clauses doing all kinds of tricks. I'll post those illustrations later when the Santa Clauses start making their ways one by one to the city in the beginning of December. This birdie belongs to a Santa Clause that enjoys playing with wooden sticks.

Geeh, getting payed to paint Santa Clauses, does life get any better? ;)

Surrounded by Master Kjarval

Karl og Kjarval - Me and the Master - Oil on Canvas, 12x12"

I've been craving to paint this piece since I shot the reference for it at a Kjarval exhibit in December 2008, finally it was it's turn at the easels.

Studio and the view from my studio

I can't stop talking about how happy I am to be back at work and to have my own studio to go to every morning, without having to clean up my mess and make sure no little hands touch my wet canvas. I am also super happy with the view from my studio, over looking Mt. Esja, my favorite mountain (along with Mt. Tamalpais, CA). I suspect I'll paint Mt. Esja many, many times in the future...

I'm back, it's Bunny Time!

I'm back! I've finally started painting again after spending the last few months on moving from San Francisco to Reykjavík and settling in. I have my new studio space all set um and am eager to start doing art again, so stay tuned for a lot of new stuff!

I decided to enjoy the beauty of mindless painting when I sat down to paint my first piece in a while. I got a little color crazy with my oils which I have missed dearly. They all demanded to be used after being still for so long ;)

Ahh...feels good to be back....

Happy Summer!

The first day of Summer in Iceland is always the first Thursday after April 18th. It is a big deal for us and we celebrate it by having the day off from work and school. We have parades and carnivals and it's a custom to give children gifts, "Summer-gifts", which is often something that has to do with Summer activities. No matter the weather on this first day of Summer, we really celebrate it. We march down the streets with marching bands, try our best to hold on to those balloons in the wind, try not to seem too cold in our shorts (it's Summer, right?) and with the weather beaten frozen smiles on our faces we say Hello to the Summer, sometimes in the middle of a snow blizzard....and we never regret saying goodbye to Winter (by the way, we don't celebrate the first day of Winter)!

Buying Time #1

Time doesn't allow me to paint much these days (nor to read for that matter), so I keep playing with black & whites, and I absolutely love it. This drawing is the first in a series of drawings that are just waiting their turn.