Category: Landscape

Acrylic painting, Arctic, Art, Awareness, DIY, Everyday life, Health, Landscape, Meditation, Yoga

How to relax

Monica Olívia ☃️

For the past 11 years or so, I have been teaching myself how to relax and be calm.

I have always been quite an anxious and worried person, so I feel I had to learn this in order to simply have a better life with more control. I also struggle with stuttering/stammering. I still sometimes forget how to, but each time I remember, I do the following:

An easy quick way to instantly relax the mind and muscles, causing bloodflow to spread more evenly in the body, is to do three things simultanously: relax the jaw and eyes completely, breathe deeply into belly for at least 8 breaths and move the inner gaze/attention to the feet or ground below. Get a sense of the Earth. Notice the effect.

Another way, if you have the oppotunity, is to lay down flat, do the same with jaw and eyes, and to focus on the in and out breaths in the belly. Take deep slow breaths. Imagine them as waves ebbing on the shore.

And lastly, going into nature of course has a calming effect too, even just for 10 minutes. If you cannot go outside, perhaps painting or drawing nature is an idea.

Hope this helps! I truly believe knowing how to relax and calm our selves is an important skill. Getting carried away by the storm can be both painful and result in regrets.

Acrylic on canvas, gift for a friend 💙
Adventure, Arctic, Beauty, Everyday life, Health, Landscape, People, Photography, Pregnancy, Sámi, Sápmi

An eventful, colourful January

Monica Olívia ☃️

It’s the last day of a very eventful January, and I am spending it curled up on our big sleeping couch with our newborn baby boy who is about 2 weeks old now, in his little baby nest and my partner who is sitting on the other end writing away on the computer. Outside, it’s already dark again. Polar night is officially over here but I have not seen the Sun yet. I am not outside so much, hardly at all as all time and energy is spent adjusting and taking care of this new amazing creation. I did however manage our first little walk with the pram!

Life is new and different and surreal as parents. Giving birth was intense and hard work, and unfortunately not how I envisioned, but nontheless a very powerful experience. A rite of passage of sorts.. At one point during delivery I felt like I connected with all other Mothers giving birth naturally, experiencing the same pain at the exact same time. When he was born, there was an incredible silence and love that I have not experienced before 🤱🏻

January is also my birthday month, and this year I celebrated at home with my little family and my friend Katharina. 29; last year in my twenties, first year as a mama 🎉✨

How was your January?

Acrylic painting, Arctic, Art, Beauty, DIY, Landscape, Sápmi

Be more of an amateur!

Monica Olívia ☃️
My favourite painting from last year 💙🧡💛💜 Acrylic on canvas.

“An amateur (literally means ‘lover [of something]’) is generally considered a person who persues a particular activity or field of study independently from their source of income/does not persue it professionally or with an eye to gain.” 🎨

#amare #amateur #amour ❤


Be more of an amateur this year ✨

Acrylic painting, Adventure, Arctic, Art, Chronic illness, DIY, Health, Landscape, Neurological, Photography, Sámi, Sápmi, Shop

First painting of the year finished

Monica Olívia ☃️

First painting of the year finished!🌟🌟🌟

Visited the beach in Sandvika twice in oct and nov before polar night; once to take the photograph and once to try and paint outdoors, but it started raining so finished it finally now in the first day of January 😁

Acrylic on canvas, 30 x 24 cm 🌅
Colours used: blue, yellow, orange, purple, gold and white. Varnished with waterproof UV protection spray.

For sale: 1400,- nok ⚡
Half of that sum (700,- nok) goes straight to the Open Medicine Foundation and their work for biological research into neurological illness myalgic encephalomyelitis.

Arctic, Everyday life, Landscape, Photography, Poems, Sápmi

Ei strime av lys over tindan

Monica Olívia ☃️

“No sløkkes en dag som så vidt rakk å gråne
og vise fram landet ei skjømmingsblå stund
og gjømt attom fjellan i aust står en måne
som snart skal strø sølv over fjorda og sund.
I sør ligg ei strime av lys over tindan
der dagen blør ut før han slokne førr godt
og vi står igjen med oss sjøl og med minnan
i mørketidslyset der allting blir blått.

Så kom og vær nær meg – vær sol i desember
når midtvinterstanka tar rom i mitt sinn
førr året må føle sin kurs og kalender
og stian blir tungtrødd når lyset førsvinn.
Men hold meg i handa og lær meg å vente
på solkvervingstimen då allting skal snu.
I mørketidslyset e varme å hente
førr den som har mot tel å trosse og tru.

Ja, streif mine strenga og løys i meg tonen
tel landet som kvile ved midtvinterstid
la mørketids-tankan og haust-depresjonen
få vike førr strofe av blå poesi.
Vi leve med rest av en sommar i minne
i lengting mot daga vi ikkje har fått
men kjem du meg nær skal vi solvarmen finne
i mørketidslyset der allting blir blått.” – Helge Stangnes 💙💛🧡

Litt mørketidspoesi nu når sola ‘har snudd’ 🤓

Arctic, Art, Beauty, DIY, Everyday life, Hair, Indigenous, Landscape, Outfit, People, Photography, Saami, Sámi, Sápmi

November

Monica Olívia ☃️
November birthday girl 🌟 My good friend Katharina turned 27 🌟
Painted hearts I made, perfect for both christmas tree decor and as tags on gifts🎁🎄
Colourful crisp mornings. Click to see big versions 💙
Blouse by Laš (Sámi design) ❤💙💚💛
Made my day few weeks ago. Had my last ultrasound, and the midwife gave me the green light to drink coffee again, being at the end of my pregnancy. So we went to the local coffeebar Risø and they made me this amazing piece of mocca art 😁🤰☕ #allthesmallthings
Arctic, Beauty, Dzogchen, Indigenous, Landscape, Meditation, Outfit, Photography, Saami, Sámi, Sápmi, Sewing, Vajrayana, Yoga

Pastel coloured skies

Monica Olívia ☃️
My favourite shawl. Head dress I made by hand.
A tantric Padmasambhava and Yeshe Tsogyal statue I helped repaint for a friend. The union of wisdom and compassion. Wish I had a similar one! Hopefully one day I will afford one 🙏🏻

You know how you need to pretend to sleep in order to fall asleep? And at some point it just happens. Maybe it’s the same with other areas of life. Fake it till you make it, kind of, not in a bad way – just a dedicated one. I have noticed at least that the same applies to yoga and meditation sometimes. If I feel stressed, anxious and restless, I force myself to do the practice anyway. And at some level it still does its magic, of that I am 100% sure. In between the sleepless thoughts and rough emotions – they become like clouds in the pastel coloured sky.

Wishing all a lovely calm Polar night, and remember that it’s in darkness you shine the brightest 🌌✨🎆

Acrylic painting, Adventure, Animals, Arctic, Art, Beauty, Indigenous, Landscape, Photography, Sámi, Sápmi

Always shifting

Monica Olívia ☃️
“Just like water, snow and ice, life is always shifting, changing forms.” (This photo is from february 2017).
Beautiful texture and shapes in the frozen water.

One of my paintings inspired by the icy landscape:

Click to see bigger versions
My little pregnant polar bear. Wrote a post earlier about this painting 💜 Here she is framed.
    Adventure, Arctic, Everyday life, Landscape, People, Photography, Poems, Saami, Sámi, Sápmi

    Away, away..

    Monica Olívia ☃️
    Senja island. The pointy peak is Segla. Hiked it once, amazing view. Apologies for grainy mobile shot, it doesn’t do it justice.
    I love driving. One of my happy places, for sure.

    “Away, away,—to the mountains away,
    Where the pine trees murmur and sway,
    And the foamy waterfalls sing and spring
    Over the boulders gray.

    Hills—
    Blue and green hills, near and far,
    The farther they lie, the better they are.
    The near ones I can climb and see
    But the beautiful far ones call to me”

    – Unknown

    Acrylic painting, Arctic, Art, Everyday life, Indigenous, Landscape, People, Photography, Sámi, Sápmi

    Magic Monday // My art exhibition

    Monica Olívia ☃️

    Come see my little exhibition of 13 paintings at Magic Ice Tromsø ❄ Most paintings are for sale 🙏🏻 They also have the cosiest tiny coffee place there, an impressive ice sculpture gallery by Lithuanian artists and a cocktail bar – all ice, even the glasses ☃️🥂🌌

    Traditional sámi wool shawl by NativeInNorway, Nordkjosbotn, Balsfjors.

    Arctic, Beauty, Everyday life, Hair, Health, Indigenous, Landscape, Saami, Sámi, Sápmi, Uralic

    Snart november

    Monica Olívia ☃️
    Fant meg en fin plass i fjæra til å meditere samt se på fargespillet på himmelen som alltid skjer nært mørketida.
    Alle bildene er tatt med mobilen, så beklager kvaliteten 🙈
    Frost 🍂
    Pastellhimmel.
    Regnbuefarger.
    Kaldere vær betyr store jakker og ullsjal ❤ Er ikke så mange jakker som passer over magen lenger 😄🤰 Månedene flyr forbi, er allerede i siste trimester 💜🌌

    Hvordan takler/liker du mørketida?

    Acrylic painting, Arctic, Art, DIY, Landscape

    New format

    Monica Olívia ☃️
    75 x 30 cm. Painting on such a long canvas was new for me! Here it is just finished in the very poor light of my living room.
    Close up details.
    I make clouds with make-up brush.
    My work station 🙂
    Before I added the plants.
    In daylight. This was before the snow came!
    Displayed in an app showroom, just to show in different setting.
    Happy with the new painting 💙🙏🏼
    Arctic, Art, Beauty, DIY, Indigenous, Landscape, Outfit, People, Photography

    Complementary colours

    Monica Olívia ☃️

    Did you know there is a reason why orange+blue and yellow+purple work together so well? 🧡💙💛💜 They are considered complementary colours! “Complementary colours are pairs of colours which, when combined or mixed, cancel each other out by producing a grayscale colour like white or black. When placed next to each other, they create the strongest contrast for those two colors. Complementary colours may also be called ‘opposite colours’.”

    Animals, Arctic, Art, DIY, Landscape

    Hibernation

    Monica Olívia ☃️
    32 x 24 cm, acrylic on multimedia paper
    “Dvale”. Means hibernation. Only pregnant polar bears hibernate 💙 was hard to paint her intirely inside the den, so she is just laying at the entrance waiting for her cubs.

    “During the fall, if a polar bear is pregnant, she digs a den into a snow drift. She then climbs into the hole and stays there to give birth and care for her cubs for the first few months of their life. She and her cubs will not emerge from the den until the spring. Male bears and non-pregnant females continue to roam and feed throughout the winter.”

    One of the absolute top animals on my list I wish to see in my lifetime.. Guess I need to head up to Svalbard for that!