If you knew that one day someone would be helped and inspired by exactly the trial you are going through now, would it then be easier to bear? I believe that the knowledge/thought that another person can benefit from your story; your experiences and how you solved problems and trials makes the burden lighter in a way; because then you are doing something for something greater than yourself. There is a self-sacrifice in the picture that gives momentum, and you no longer think only of “me and mine,” but also of the well-being of others. I don’t know if this makes sense – I think it’s the autumn and the colourful death and devotion of the plants to the cycle of the seasons that made me write this 🤭🍂💛
In a world that teaches me first, me only, me always, prayer is a quiet rebellion. It begins with a bow, a loosening of the fist that clutches at control.
It dares to whisper: I am not the center. I am not the crown of all things. I am a thread in the tapestry, a note in the chorus, a servant of something vast. Something holy.
Prayer is an act of defiance against the tyranny of ego, against the hunger that never fills. It topples the empire of the small self and builds, stone by stone, a sanctuary for all beings.
In prayer, we betray the myth of isolation. We kneel not in defeat, but in devotion and love.
Prayer is rebellion, the most radical kind, for it wages war not on others, but on the walls within, until only openness remains.
Through the power of prayer, we can align ourselves with life and light itself. What a miracle.
We can call for the aid of both ancient and recent Masters, Beyond space and time. Their luminous wisdom and boundless compassion can touch our hearts as intimately as the Sun’s warmth opens flowers in the morning mist.
Prayer is not just mere words. It is the trembling of the soul reaching for our wholeness, a candle lit in the dark, a river bending toward the ocean. Prayer is tantra and transformation.
Wanted to share this free online playlist on Youtube in six parts, focused on the healing of traumas in the psyche. It can be done sitting in a comfortable posture, or laying down if you prefer. It has been extremely helpful for me, so I share it in hopes someone else will benefit 🫶🏻
A zen tradition that doesn’t separate buddhanature from substrate consciousness (skt. alaya vijnana), doesn’t speak or teach kensho but then claims to be able to just sit (j. shikantaza), that doesn’t have one on one instruction (j. sanzen/dokusan), that has no emphasis of any type of dynamicity or physicality in training, where lineage blessings go unnoticed, where students and roshis spend sesshin after sesshin half asleep, has got to be the most decadent form of Zen to ever exist. These are the very problems that Bodhidharma corrected by teaching the weak, sleepy and ignorant meditation monks dynamic movement practices but also how to transform, stretch and strenghten tissues (c. yijinjing) and how to transform all three bodies from samsaric to nirvanic state (c. xisuijing, bone marrow washing). It’s been long since Bodhidharma’s time but the state of some systems that claim to be zen buddhism merely based on lineage transmission and mimicked external form, proves that the deluded mind is master in deluding itself, without much ability to learn from the mistakes done by others. It is indeed difficult to find practitioners who are able to analyze and extract the essential meaning of dharma thus demonstrating abundant merit (skt. punya).
Baba, Revitalized Zen 16 March 2025
Yes, this seems to be true; that the state of Zen lineages today is simply not producing Masters, as was the whole point of Zen training. The state of Dharma is seemingly in a bad shape all around. Therefore, I find it very refreshing and interesting to read such quotes as the one above. Here is the YouTube channel of Revitalized Zen, the facebook group and here is the blog. Excellent reading for any spiritual seeker 🙏🏼🪷
“The ancient Masters were profound and subtle. Their wisdom was unfathomable. There is no way to describe it; all we can describe is their appearance.
They were careful as someone crossing an iced-over stream. Alert as a warrior in enemy territory. Courteous as a guest. Fluid as melting ice. Shapable as a block of wood. Receptive as a valley. Clear as a glass of water.
Do you have the patience to wait till your mud settles and the water is clear? Can you remain unmoving till the right action arises by itself?
The Master doesn’t seek fulfillment. Not seeking, not expecting, she is present, and can welcome all things.”
Chatral Rinpoche (8. June 1913 – 30. December 2015). Yogi whom has helped me on my spiritual path 💎📿
You might spend your whole life pursuing only food and clothing, With great effort and without regard for suffering or harmful deeds, But when you die you cannot take even a single thing with you — consider this well. The clothing and alms needed to keep you alive are all you need. You might dine on the finest meal of delicious meat and alcohol, But it all turns into something impure the very next morning, And there is nothing more to it all than that. So be content with life-sustaining provisions and simple clothes, And be a loser when it comes to food, clothing and conversation.
No matter where you stay, be it a busy place or a solitary retreat, The only things that you need to conquer are mind’s five poisons(jealousy, pride, anger, ignorance, attachment). And your own true enemies, the eight worldly concerns(hope for pleasure and fear of pain, hope for gain and fear of loss, hope for praise and fear of criticism, hope for good reputation and fear of bad reputation).
There is no better sign of accomplishment than a disciplined mind. This is true victory for the real warrior who carries no weapons. When you practise the teachings of the sūtras and tantras, The altruistic bodhicitta of aspiration and application is crucial, Because it lies at the very root of the Mahāyāna. Just to have this is enough, but without it, all is lost.
It is far better to eliminate your doubts and misconceptions, By relying on the instructions of your own qualified teacher, Than to receive many different teachings and never take them any further.
If you lack the wealth of contentment in your mind, You’ll think you need all kinds of useless things, And end up even worse than just an ordinary person, Because you won’t manage even a single session of practice. So set your mind on freedom from the need for anything at all. Wealth, success and status are all simply ways of attracting enemies and demons. Pleasure-seeking practitioners who fail to turn their minds from this life’s concerns Sever their connection to the authentic Dharma.
Limit yourself to just a few activities and undertake them all with diligence. Not allowing your mind to become fidgety and restless.
Have to share this absolute gem of a film 🙏🏼 Found it very well made and entertaining to watch, and a good Dharma film to show kids. I don’t usually watch a lot of animé but I liked it!
Really enjoyed this 2 hour interview with “the smarteste man in the world”. Of course IQ isn’t everything, as he says himself, but I guess what I liked about this interview is how he early on in life decided to look for truth and meaning rather than using his brains to make money. They got into all sorts of topics, like beauty, reality, globalism, God, even aliens, cancel culture, etc. Very relevant atuff. Also, I found it funny how he said most buddhists nowadays don’t understand emptiness/sunyata, I think that is true.
When we are small children, it comes natural for us to think of others. We don’t see much separation between ourselves and others, and so wanting to be kind, to help and be generous comes as naturally as dusk and dawn.
As we age and experiences shape us, we get hardened. We are no longer soft and supple like babies, now we have frozen places in our bodies and mind that makes us feel and act in certain negative ways, or it even makes us ill. We get prickly edges, we might be ‘difficult’ for others to be around and as much as we wish to feel soft, authentic and playful again, it just don’t seem to happen by will alone.
This is where yogic practices (dharma) can help, because it targets and addresses both the physical body, and the subtle energy bodies. Focusing only on one aspect, will not be a holistic solution, in my experience. And focusing only on my own healing, without regard to others who are also suffering, is not sufficient; it has to be for the benefit of others – it has to touch the heart (bodhichitta).
Prayer flags in our garden
Here is the youtube channel and the website of the Amrita Mandala dharma lineage which I practice and which has helped me the most in my life and healing 🙏🏼
In my summer sea sámi gákti. And small baby “shoes” made by mother-in-law 🙏🏼Shades of blue shellRusty coloursBlue and purple hues“Det er morgen igjen, vesle håp og verden frotterer seg med nyvasket solskinn. Livets ansikt er aldri det samme selv om vi ser på det i all evighet.” – Kolbein Falkeid #home #kitchen #midnightsunCurious little guy on a short hike in the rain. ☔️Summer details in some of my older paintings. Just playing and experimenting with colours and techniques so that I will hopefully find the Joy of painting again 😄 I guess I have a little dry spell in my creative life at the moment.. Blue, orange and yellow are great together. A bouquet I picked by the side of the road.Details Beef tallow.Son and daddy 💙💛❤️💚My partner of 14 years meditating. #yogisondisplay Our shed with some new flowers.Curious little rabbit in our garden.
Yogi on display in nature for the birds, foxes and rabbits to see 😄 also i found a long-ish animal bone that was perfect to use for hitting on a rock to keep the rhythm while chanting and singing prayers. 🐰🐦🦊🦴
What is #YogisOnDisplay?
“Unlike in cultures long established in the dharma, spiritual practice is not visible in the everyday life of Western society. While many Westerners practice some form of spiritual practice, the actual practice is often kept private. This is a great pity. Not only does it speak volumes about the level of spiritual maturity of the West, but it also means that many people never encounter dharma in the first place. If spirituality is not publically displayed, the fact that there is an alternative to existential confusion and suffering does not reach the masses.
In an attempt to counter this, Amrita Baba has initiated the Yogis on Display project. The idea behind Yogis on Display is to encourage spiritual practitioners of the West to become living examples for others. Instead of hiding away in our modern city caves, we need to bring meditation, mantra singing, yoga practice, and so on, directly to where it matters; straight to the middle of the hamster wheel. Displaying the solution to existential confusion and suffering is a hands-on, time-tested way of practicing care and compassion for all beings.
To spread the message of Yogis on Display the hashtag #yogisondisplay has been created. Practitioners who chose to take part are encouraged to take a picture of themselves and share it on social media using this hashtag. This way more people can learn about the initiative and become inspired to light the torch of dharma in our public spheres.” (AmritaMandala.com)
Our true inner nature is the same as in the natural world; open, alive, grounded, expressive…🧡💛💚💙 “Basic nature”, acrylic and oil pastel crayons, 31,7 x 23,6 cm
It is from Eastern Siberia that the word shaman comes from, which means to ‘heat up’. Where it originated before that, I do not know. The ‘new shananism’ people in the west speak of today can hardly be compared. Shamanism and animism has permeated most if not all of the nomadic and semi-nomadic cultures in this part of the world. The shamans have traditionally been both women and men, though the word ‘shaman’ is masculine form. The feminine word for a female shaman is ‘udugan’ in Tungusic language. In Northern Sámi a shaman is known as a Noaide. (Acrylic on mixed media paper, A4)Shaman’s drum to aid in the trance travel
Here is some pictures I used for inspiration for my painting.
I can also highly recommend these practices on youtube by a Uralic Tantric yoga teacher Amrita Baba; where he teaches tantric practices with ancient shamanic masters. Here is part 1 of 4, and the other parts linked below video.
I often think about how the two genders are put up against each other in todays’ society, and we forget how to cooperate. We forget that men and women are dependant on each others’ strengths and that we complement each others’ weaknesses. We tend to focus on “who has it worse and who does what is most important”, instead of focusing on “what can we accomplish together, and how can we best raise the next generation, and be there for one another in life’s traumas, challenges and victories”. We hear absurd statements like “what is a woman”, and “do we need men”. The feminine and the masculine are two wings of the same bird, we need both to soar. The feminine power represents creation and wisdom, while the masculine represents stability and action. The whole Universe – and thus you and me – are made of these, and we should not forget that.
(Acrylic and oil pastel drawing/painting size A4, on mixed media paper)
The following text is from Barbara Brennan’s book “Light Emerging”, page 337 – 343 💜
“Once upon a time, aeons ago before time was known as it is today, there was a spark of light in the heart of the divine. That spark in the divine burst forth into millions of stars. Each star had a name that was written in the word of God. One of those stars is you. As a star, you grew and developed and sang across the heavens to the other stars. In this time before you were born as a human, you knew light, love, and wisdom. Being unborn, of course you had no body, so there was a great deal of freedom. You were completely aware of the essence of your being. You had great freedom to move about the universe at your will. You moved in the direction that you focused in. With your intention, you began creating things. If you had a wish, you automatically created it. You created stone and earth; tree and flower; star and planet; even cloud and wind.
Your essence moved easily, changing from one form to another. You experienced being a cloud, a moon, a sun, or a fish, or a cat. You continued to move as your pleasure led you. As you moved from one form to another, creating more forms, you slowly became identified with form, and shadow was born. You got so excited in the creating that memory slipped and you forgot who you were. You were so busy creating, you didn’t even notice that you began to think you were form.
Shadow grew darker, and pain was born out of forgetting that the true self is essence. The true self is the creator, that which is beyond form. That is how you created shadow and pain. You forgot who you are. You split yourself in two: the part that forgot and the whole that remembers.
Within every human being, there is the spark of the divine in every cell of your body. It is the essence of self. Within that true essence of who you are is the healer within you who has all of the creative power of the universe. The healer within you is named according to the word of God. That is who you truly are. Move your awareness now to your inner essence, your power and light that are completely unique. You are the word of God made manifest. Move your awareness to the total essence of your being—that is the healer within you. You have felt it your entire life. The golden threads of this power have been woven through the tapestry of your life since before you were born. You knew as a small child, as you know now, what this means. Feel the essence, the power, flowing through you. It is your uniqueness. It is your beauty. It is your love. It is the sweetness that you experienced life to be as a child.
Your power lies within the sweetness of who you are. It is within the sweet longings you have protected and shielded from others. You are like a flower unfolding in the sunlight. Feel the power and the nature of your divinity, unlike any other. Now ground that well in your body. That part of you is still free. That part of you can still move freely through space, time, and other realities. Feel yourself in this freedom now. As you are moving through time and space to different types of reality, in the far distance you hear a cry. That cry wells up and becomes more audible, and you say, “Oh, what could that be?” You hear the longing in the cry for help. Then you spot it and you see the beautiful blue and white shimmering planet in the sky. You are drawn closer to that beloved planet by the cries of need. As you get closer, you say, “What can I do to help? How can I answer this cry, this call? How can I help heal the pain that is upon the earth?” Then you have a great idea. You decide to create a physical form by drawing it up out of the earth and drawing the pain with it. You intend to use the physical form to heal the pain. You descended into a tiny physical body.
After nine months or so, you were born into this world as a human being. The longer you remained attached to that body, the dimmer the memory of your original essence became. As a child, and perhaps way before that, you began taking on the pain. During the experience of the pain, you completely forgot who you were. When the pain would leave, you would remember. When the pain would come back, you would forget. The pain that you chose to heal grew inside of your body.
Look over your childhood. Find the deepest pain that you have carried in all those years. With that pain, you will find your deepest longing. What is it that you want to be? What is it that you longed to be as a child that you now and then thought you could never be? Did you want to move among the stars? Did you want to heal everyone on earth? Did you want to paint or to create beautiful music? Did you want to make everyone feel safe? What was it that you wanted more than anything? If you could be or could have anything you wished on earth, have any fantasy come true, what is that fantasy? How is the un-fulfillment of that related to your very deep pain?
Look backward over your life. As you moved through each moment of your life carrying that pain, there is one thread: a repeated cycle on the spiral of life, where that deepest pain from childhood has been repeated over and over and over again in the many different experiences that you have had. If you look at all of those experiences, you will find a common thread among them all. When you find that common thread, then allow yourself to begin feeling that pain. Allow your body to experience this pain. Where has it affected your body? When you feel it in your body, where does your body tense? Explore now throughout your body where that pain has affected your psychic, your spiritual, your mental, your psychological, and your physical being. That thread runs holographically through every portion of your being, and as it runs through your body it hits in particular places that eventually become experienced as physical pain. Find it in your body. If you are sensitive to the auric field, then find it in the auric field.
As you find that pain, on whatever level it has manifested most profoundly—perhaps a fear, perhaps a problem with relationship, perhaps in a physical disorder, perhaps in your profession—then ask yourself a question: “What has this to do with my deepest longing? How is this particular problem associated with my deepest longing of who I wish to be, what I want to do with my life, where I wish to live?” The first job you have is to heal that pain within the body. For it is by the pain in your body and life that you will learn the personal skills that you need to fill your longing, no matter what it is. Find that pain within your body, and put your hands on it: that which you have carried for a lifetime, that darkest belief system that has the most profound forgetting, that one major, deepest pain, be it in your heart, your belly, or in your throat. Put your hand there now, and experience the consciousness there that believes in separation. It is the shadow. It believes it is separate and isolated from everything, isolated and separate with no hope. Find that pain that has been there from the earliest of days, and let that shadow begin to dissolve. Enter into the shadow. Accompany yourself into the dungeon within the self that needs healing. Do not deny the human experience of that real pain from the human perspective. It is not a new pain. It has been there ever since you can remember. It is not the kind of pain that goes away easily, for it is deeply, deeply ingrained. Spend some time with the pain. Then when you are ready, move your conscious awareness to the healer within you. Here is your wisdom. Here is your longing and your light with which you came here to heal the pain that is in your body. Move back to the pain and feel the pain. Then move to the longing and feel the longing. Move back to the pain and then to the longing again. Continue moving from one to the other until you find the association between the two, until you can answer the question, “What does this pain in my life mean to me? What is it trying to tell me? What is the message it brings to me?”
While you are feeling that pain with your hands, from the human perspective, ask the essence of healer that you are what you need to do. What is the deepest cause of this pain? Ask for help to heal this pain. Ask the healer within for help to heal that which you have been unable to heal in yourself up until now. Truly ask, and it shall be answered. Ask very specifically what you can do. What is the cause? What is the belief system? What do you need to do every day? Allow the essence of the healer within you to work through your hands to heal your body. Be a channel to heal the self. Let the light flow through you. After you have received as much information as you can, reach for the highest spiritual reality you know; your higher self or your guides. Reach for the memory of who you are from that highest spiritual reality. You will find that the pain within you is precisely the pain that you were drawn to earth to heal, way back before you were born, when you were that wondrous spiritual being. That is who you truly are. So reach up to that part of the self that has incarnated in order to heal the very pain that you carry within yourself and that you have carried since your birth. For it is precisely the pain you have come to heal, and it is you who have chosen to take on this pain and in doing so you chose to incarnate with precisely the best combinations of energies and wisdom and love to heal that particular pain. That is what you have come to heal, and you are fully equipped to do so. You have fully equipped yourself to heal it. And that wondrous spiritual being that you were before your birth when you heard the cries and the longing from the earth and were drawn toward the earth is the healer within you.
You are the person who knows how to heal that pain more than anyone else. That is your healer within. Be the healer within you, and heal that thread of pain that you have carried throughout your whole life. Touch your body in places you feel pain. As you are working, move your consciousness back and forth between the healer within and the inner person who is in pain. As you continue to move back and forth, you begin to understand the relationship between the healer within you and the pain that it has come to heal. You have drawn this pain up from the earth to transform it. Give yourself plenty of time to complete this process. You are integrating the pain within, the longing that you carry within your heart, and the healer within that can heal you. Let the healer within you draw out that pain and return you to wholeness. Move back and forth between the human with the deep pain, and the healer with universal power. Move them closer and closer together as you move back and forth until they merge. Continue the process until you become completely merged. When you feel satisfied that the merging is complete and has stabilized, I would like you to remain silent for at least an hour. Remain silent, sit in meditation, or simply get up and go for a walk in the woods.”
The sky is always so colourful right before polarnight sets inEarly in NovemberAn important topic and film (“The silence in Sápmi”) Saw it in the cinema, I think it will be put online later.Made some Christmas decor with our son ❤️From high up! Propeller plane ride from Arctic to Southern Finland ❄️🤍🌌His third plane ride, and he isn’t even two!Amrita Mandala yoga retreat 20+ people in person and online, practising yoga-dharma together for 4 days. In PorvooMe doing Dzogchen Metta practice with Jenna ✨️Photo of calender I printed with my own photos. These are for June, because they were taken in June at midnight. I chose this photo for March because that is when these little birdies return. 11 am 💜💛🤍
Soon we enter December and thus the last month of 2022. Hope you are all staying warm and safe, and that Christmas is not a source of stress, but a time for relaxing and magic ✨️❄️
A heart opening guided meditation session led by Kim Rinpoche.
October night sky a few weeks ago 💙🍂
If we know our hearts and our own natural state, we will also simultaneously know how to love and care. Not only for others but for ourselves and our difficult emotions. Life is so full of difficult emotions, as we know. Compassion and forgiveness is always with you, like a silent friend.
Thank you for reading and still following my blog. It is most appreciated. My posts are very sporadic, as time flies by with the new baby. Long days but short weeks. Not enough hours to get it all done, and not enough hours to just enjoy him – this new little person that runs our lives now. Motherhood is equally hard as it is wonderful. I hope to get more painting and other artsy projects into my days again.
Håja and HillesøyHåja mountain. We drove up and got the best view ever. Very happy with this photo!Arctic July.More furry neighbours.Rainy summer day.Ilo, a cute little dog we met at Reinøya.Early morning at Reinøya. Seal at Reinøya. Summer swim.. Me and my boyfriend’s mother. 8-9°c!Tromsø centrum, the pavillion.At the Arctic-Alpine Botanical garden in Tromsø. Blue Himalayan poppies. 💙 In the World’s Northernmost botanical garden.So many beautiful colours and shapes.Midsummer, 23rd of June.Tiny Arctic dolphins.Sunlight over Lyngsalpan. Rainy evening at Spåkenes. Kali 💚🖤Picked a small bouquet.
“I love the Arctic summer, it’s the best day of the year!” Short but sweet. How was your summer?
According to buddhism, this world is a samsaric world and the minds of sentient beings are samsaric minds. What does this mean? Samsara means being stuck in a repeated loop of confusion. In this repeated loop we keep making misassessments and misjudgements because we see all things in a distorted way. Being deluded and confused means that our perception of the world, ourselves and others is corrupted. Because our mind interferes with direct experience of anything faster than a blink of an eye, is the reason why there is vast confusion and conflict in this world. No matter how hard we try, samsaric beings cannot avoid thinking and feeling in distorted ways, and this makes this world a world of pain and suffering, when potentially it could be a paradise.
From morning until night we keep thinking about “I” or “me”. We perceive the things of the world and other people in terms of me and other, or me and something else. Every single day we have strong opinions even about small petty things. Every day we have high hopes and expectations about things and then we get disappointed, frustrated and angry when things don’t go like we hoped. We are simply unable to not think in this way.
Just like the arteries of the physical body get calcified over time due to bad diet and lack of exercise, so does our mind get fixated and habituated around the compulsory notion of me. This makes us small and miserable. It makes us bitter, angry, deluded and dirty. The thought of me-ness literally steals our life from us.
You can go ahead and say to yourself, “I, I, I” or “me, me, me”, a number of times. Say it in a way as if you were a bit angry about something, like you were earlier today or yesterday. Say, “me, me, me, me” with a frustrated tone, then stop and see how it makes you feel. This is not difficult.
Through this simple thought affirmation, you will feel different sensations in the body and mind. You’ll feel that your energy contracts as if you suddenly became smaller or tighter. It feels as if a loose knot was made tighter. You might feel that your belly gets tense, heart area becomes anxious or you might feel a tight band around your head. Pardon my language but this affirmation makes you feel like shit.
But wait a second… What did we do again? We only said “me” or “I” to ourselves… This is the same I-thought that we keep thinking and saying aloud every day, and it makes us feel awful. That it makes us feel awful is exactly what we need to discover.
We go around in circles and see the world in a distorted way because we are habitually centered around this thought – me. It affects everything at all times. It makes us feel small and constricted during the day and it creates weird dreams and nightmares during the night. Just like it is important to discover that the I-thought makes us feel like shit it is as important to realise that all thoughts, including the I-thought are transitory, impermanent. This means that all thoughts come and go, and do not stay, and yet we give so much meaning to them.
In samsaric mind, thoughts and thought associations define us and this creates havoc and destruction in our lives. This is psychological habituation that can be entirely removed.
Before even starting this list, I know this is going to be a long post. I will not be able to choose just one artwork by each artist, and I want to write what exactly it is about their work which speaks to me and inspires me. Just googling and looking through their work and studying their techniques instantly sparks motivation and awe in me. I do have more than 10 favourites by the way, but let’s not go too crazy!
Here are the artists:
Nicholas Roerich Thomas Cole K. Hokusai John Savio Eva Harr Robert Gonsalves Theodor Kittelsen The Brothers Hildebrandt Phil Couture
Let’s begin!
Nicholas Roerich
The list is sort of random, except for the one on top. Nicholas Roerich’s artworks are truly some of the best I’ve seen, not only in style and composition but also in the message they convey: often spiritual, mystical and religious themes combined with amazing landscapes and colour combinations.
Short trivia: Roerich (1874-1947) was a Russian painter, philospher and archeaologist. Founder of Agni Yoga or Living Ethics/Teaching of Life with his wife, Helena. He did a five year long ‘expedition’ to Asia, which in his own words were: “from Sikkim through Punjab, Kashmir, Ladakh, the Karakoram Mountains, Khotan, Kashgar, Qara Shar, Urumchi, Irtysh, the Altai Mountains, the Oyrot region of Mongolia, the Central Gobi, Kansu, Tsaidam, and Tibet”, which immensely influenced his works.
During his life, he lived both in Russia, Finland, England, India and USA.
Besides the recognition as one of the greatest Russian painters, Roerich’s most notable achievement during his lifetime was the Roerich Pact (the Treaty on the Protection of Artistic and Scientific Institutions and Historic Monuments) signed April 1935 by the representatives of American states in the Oval Office of the White House. It was the first international treaty signed in the Oval Office.
There is a museum in New York displaying 150 of his works- which I would love to visit 🙂
Fun fact: The minor planet 4426 Roerich in the Solar System was named in honor of Nicholas Roerich.
Here are some of his best works, in my opinion (Sources: Google and the Roerich museum website)
“On the heights, (Tummo)”, 1936 – As a breathing exercise, tummo (Candali in Sanskrit) is a part of tantric practice. Tummo literally means “brave female” or “inner fire” in Tibetan.
(Could not find the title for these, but I find them lovely)
“Milarepa – the one who harkened”, 1925 – the first painting I saw of Roerich and fell in love with.
“St. Panteleimon the Healer”, 1916
(Could not find the title for this one either)
“Padmasambhava”, 1924 – I particularly like this one because of the colours, but also how Padmasambhava (aka The Lotus Born, Guru Rinpoche) sort of sits leaning over a little mountain top looking over the meditating monk in a caring way, probably giving him some blessing, transmission or terma (secret teaching). I would love to have this on my wall.
Thomas Cole
As you can probably guess, my favourite kind of art is landscapes; mountains and rivers, skies and horizons. Thomas Cole’s work is very realistic and typical for the romantic era, but also carries a sort of spiritual vibe to them as he often implemented celestial beings, such as angels. He is exceptionally good at perspective and composition, as you can see in the works below – and the details are amazing.
Short trivia: Thomas Cole (1801-1811) was born in England, but moved to the United states when he was 17 with his family. He is known for his amazing landscape paintings of the American wilderness, and was mostly self taught, studying other artists’ work and reading books.
In 1842, Cole embarked on a grand tour of Europe in an effort to study in the style of the Old Masters and to paint its scenery. Most striking to Cole was Europe’s tallest active volcano, Mount Etna. Cole was so moved by the volcano’s beauty that he produced several sketches and at least six paintings of it.
Fun fact: The fourth highest peak in the Catskills (where he and his wife lived) is named Thomas Cole Mountain in his honor.
I struggled choosing a limited amount of Cole’s paintings because he has so many good ones. I chose four of the absolute best ones, in my opinion, where the two first ones are part of a four series of paintings called The Ages of Life.
(Sources: google and Wikipedia)
“Childhood”
“Youth”
“Prometheus Bound” – 1847. One of Cole’s largest oil paintings. In the painting, Prometheus is chained to a rock on Mount Caucasus in Scythia. Zeus has punished him for endowing humans with life, knowledge, and specifically for giving humans fire.
Could not find the title for this, but I like it because it looks like a scene from the Tolkien universe.
Amid those scenes of solitude… the mind is cast into the contemplation of eternal things.
Thomas cole
Katsushika Hokusai
I love Japanese art. Although kind of typical Japanese in style, Hokusai still has his own expression, and I like the use of so many colours. He also has a lot of movement in his works, making them come alive. Just look at that wave 🙂
Short trivia: Hokusai (approx. 1760-1849), was a Japanese painter and woodblock print maker.
Hokusai had a long career, but he produced most of his important work after age 60 (!) His most popular work is the ukiyo-e series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, which was created between 1826 and 1833. It consists of 46 prints.
Hokusai was never in one place for long. He found cleaning distasteful, and instead, he allowed dirt and grime to build up in his studio until the place became unbearable and then simply moved out. The artist changed residences over 90 times throughout his life.
During a Tokyo festival in 1804, he created a portrait of the Buddhist priest Daruma said to be 600 feet (180 m) long using a broom and buckets full of ink. Another story places him in the court of the Shogun Iyenari, invited there to compete with another artist who practiced more traditional brush stroke painting. Hokusai’s painting, created in front of the Shogun, consisted of painting a blue curve on paper, then chasing a chicken across it whose feet had been dipped in red paint. He described the painting to the Shogun as a landscape showing the Tatsuta River with red maple leaves floating in it, winning the competition.
The artist also had difficulty settling on a single moniker. Although changing one’s name was customary among Japanese artists at this time, Hokusai took the practice even further with a new artist name roughly each decade. Together with his numerous informal pseudonyms, the printmaker claimed more than 30 names in total (!)
His tombstone bears his final name, Gakyo Rojin Manji, which translates to “Old Man Mad about Painting.”
Fun fact: Claude Monet acquired 23 of the Japanese artist’s prints.
(Sources: katsushikahokusai.org, artsy.net, google and wikipedia)
“Great wave off Kanawaga” – 1832
“Hokusai” For anyone who likes Hayao Miyazaki‘s movies, I think maybe some of his creatures were inspired by this woodblock print.
“Sarumaru daiyu” – 1835
“Shore of Tago Bay, Ejiri at Tokaido” – 1842
“Inume pass in Kai Province” In Japanese woodblock printing, the use of Prussian blue – a synthetic pigment imported from Europe – is very common. My favourite shade of blue 🙂
John Savio
The only Sámi artist on my list, and the best one 🙂 I snuck him on there despite him not mainly being a painter, but also doing lithography. This summer, I went to see his original artworks at the Savio museum in Kirkenes, my mother’s hometown – half of my roots. Most of his art has Arctic inspired themes; reindeers, the Sámi peoples way of life, and the tundra (vidda). He has captured a life frozen in time that no longer exists, but is still somehow in me.
Short trivia: John Andreas Savio (1902-1938) from Bugøyfjord, was the first sámi artist to get his own exhibition at the National Gallery (Norway). He also exhibited some of his works in Paris in 1937.
Savio grew up as an orphan and died at age 36. He was poor most of his life and used to go door to door, trying to sell his art.
Picture I took of one of his paintings at the Savio museum in Kirkenes.
“Summer” – Lithography of a Sámi man in lotus posture
“Boy and girl” – One of his most famous works, at the Saviomuseum
“Man with reindeer ox”
A painting by Savio. The inscriptioin on the frame is in German, and is thought to have been owned by the Nazis during the war. In 2005, this painting was donated in the mail to the Savio museum from a woman in Germany. Savio rarely put dates on his art.
“Kjærlighet på pinne”
Eva Harr
I was lucky enough to visit Eva Harr’s gallery in Reine, Lofoten this autumn, and got to see her original works up close. Her style is realistic combined with a fiction-like feeling; it could be a real place she has painted, but it could also be a made-up dreamy landscape. She’s good at combining elements, such as rocks, and I like how she is able to make many of her paintings look hazy.
Short trivia: Harr (1951) is a Norwegian painter, born in Harstad. She has her own gallery as mentioned, and many of her works are displayed in other museums around Norway. Her own words about her art:
“Jeg har en meditativ holdning til mitt arbeide, der naturens syklus alltid står i fokus. Døgnets ulike stemninger, lyset og mørket, nattens begynnelse og slutt – og ikke minst månen med sin mektige symbolikk og innvirkning på våre liv. Symbolene jeg finner i naturen er ofte universelle og sterkt ladet. Dette velger jeg å utforske og fordype meg i. Mitt landskap er et indre landskap, og er metafor på mine indre reiser. Jeg vil speile naturen, og dens viktige plass i våre liv. Jeg blir berørt av dette uforutsigbare som preger vår tid, uro og støy som truer vår natur. Dette preger mitt blikk, og er underliggende i mitt valg av motiv. Samtidig ser jeg klart at lysets skiftninger og landskapet i nord, er en veldig viktig inspirasjonskilde.”
from her own website, evaharr.no
Some of her amazing works (Sources: google and her website)
“Erindring” (Recollection)
“Brev hjem” (Letter home)
“Mot blått” (Towards blue)
“Over jorden” (Above the earth)
Rob Gonsalves
Four years ago, I came across one of Gonsalves’ paintings (the first one below) and it reminded me of a meditation experience I had had. So I checked out more of his works, and found so many more that I liked. Style: surrealism (or magic realism) and optical illusions.
Short trivia: Rob Gonsalves (1959-2017), also known as The Master of illusion, was a architect and painter from Ontario, Canada. His works were very much influenced by other surrealist artists, such as Dalí and Escher. He also published several books containing his works. Sadly, Gonsalves took his own life last year. Check out this webpage if you want to see more of his mindbending artworks.
(Sources: wikipedia and google)
“The phenomenon of floating”
“White blanket”. I think there is something very cozy and safe about this painting. I love the snow, and have many times thought what it would be like if the snow was warm – like a bed.
“Nocturnal skating”
“Union of Sea and Sky” – Acrylic on Canvas. This painting reminds me of a poster I had in my room growing up, of dolphins and other sea animals underwater.
Theodor Kittelsen
One of the most famous and beloved artists in Norway. You have probably seen his works even if you don’t know it. His art reminds me of childhood, as he made illustrations to many of the big Norwegian fairytales, lores and legends. I wish I had more of Kittelsen’s art, but I have been so fortunate to get my hands on five vintage porcelain plates (for hanging on the wall) with his drawings on them, and one giclée print of “White Bear King Valemon”.
Short trivia: Theodor Severin Kittelsen (1857-1914) was a Norwegian illustrator and painter born in Kragerø. He has also written and published several poems. He came from a poor family with seven siblings, and his father died when Theodor was only 11 years old. This forced him to get out and get a job as an apprentice, which inevitably lead him to meet art historian Diderich Aall, who saw how gifted the boy was. Aall decided to pay for his art education.
In 1874, 17 years old, Kittelsen attended Wilhelm von Hannos drawing school in Christiania (now Oslo). In 1876, he travelled to München, to study at the royal art academy there.
Kittelsen’s depiction of trolls have largely shaped how people see these beloved fictional creatures.
His family’s home at Lauvlia is today a museum. Some of his most popular works were made here. His wife Inga was a stay-at-home teacher for their nine children and she organised his exhibitions.
Th. Kittelsen also composed an eerie book with illustrations about the Black Death.
Despite being very talented, Kittelsen never achieved financial security through his works.
(Sources: wikipedia, google and theodorkittelsen.no)
“Far, far away, Soria Moria Palace shimmered in Gold”
“Self portrait” – 1887. I think this might be the best self portrait I’ve seen 😀
“Nøkken as a white horse”. In legends and fairytales, Nøkken is a personalisation of what lives in the eerie unknown waters in forests. He lives in rivers, fresh water lakes and bogs, and often lures people in to drown them. One of Kittelsen’s most famous works is “Nøkken”.
“The troll who wonders how old he is”. I remember seeing this painting is school books, and absolutely falling in love with it.
“Huldra disappeared”. In legends, Huldra is a beautiful female creature who lures men into the woods, kind of like Nøkken. I love the misty feeling in this one.
“Echo” – 1888, oil on canvas. I absolutely adore this painting, inspired by Lofoten. Kittelsen regarded this as his best work.
The Brothers Hildebrandt
When I was a kid, I used to flick through my dad’s art books and magazines, and I specifically remember seeing fantasy paintings. Fantasy is a very unique genre, and I love how skillful you have to be with your brush to make good fantasy art. Tim and Greg Hildebrandt are two of these.
Short trivia: Greg and Tim Hildebrandt, known as the Brothers Hildebrandt (born January 23, 1939), are American twin brothers who worked collaboratively as fantasy and science fiction artists for many years. They produced illustrations for comic books, movie posters, children’s books, posters, novels, calendars, advertisements, and trading cards. Tim Hildebrandt died on June 11, 2006.
They began painting professionally in 1959 as the Brothers Hildebrandt. The brothers both held an ambition to work as animators for Walt Disney, and although they never realized this dream, their work was heavily influenced by illustration style of Disney feature films such as Snow White, Pinnochio and Fantasia.
The brothers are best known for their popular The Lord of the Rings calendar illustrations, illustrating comics for Marvel Comics and DC Comics, original oil paintings for a limited edition of Terry Brooks’s The Sword of Shannara, and their Magic: The Gathering and Harry Potter illustrations for Wizards of the Coast.
(Sources: timhildebrandt.com and Wikipedia)
“An unexpected party” – Greg and Tim Hildebrandt. A scene from Tolkien’s children’s book The Hobbit.
“Mushroom village of the elves” – Tim Hildebrandt
“Gandalf visits Bilbo” – Greg and Tim Hildebrandt
Weird looking cat-fish-creature by Tim Hildebrandt.
Tim Hildebrandt’s painting of J.R.R. Tolkien sitting under a tree with one of his own imaginary creatures.
Phil Couture
An oil painting artist I discovered last year on Etsy. As mentioned above, I like Asian art, and also fine art, so Phil Couture’s oil portraits of geishas really deserved a place on my list. I ordered one of his prints not long ago. Style: realism.
Short trivia: Philippe Couture was born in Drummondville, Canada in 1984, raised in Lakeland, Florida, and currently resides in Kyoto, Japan. He has been drawing and painting his entire life and Phil’s art education was primarily self-taught. His training consisted of drawing and painting from life, studying masterpieces in museums around the world, and employing exercises taught by classical ateliers. – from his own website.
Ask The Mountains 