Picture from Lofoten 1897 - 1918

Rikard Lindström captured a harbor in the Lofoten Islands, probably in the early twentieth century, with oil on canvas. Just imagine the scene, the artist standing there, maybe a bit windswept, trying to capture the light as it bounces off the water and those majestic, snow-touched mountains. I get a sense of the artist’s struggle with the elements, trying to pin down something so fleeting, the way those brushstrokes kind of chop up the light and shadow into chunky bits of color. It's like he’s wrestling with the scene, trying to hold onto it before it all melts away. Look how Lindström uses blues and whites to give the feeling of the cold air, while the warmer tones in the boats and mountains provide some contrast. There's a dance between representation and abstraction, where the scene is recognizable but also felt. I wonder if he was looking at other Nordic painters, or maybe even Cezanne, trying to figure out how to build form with color. Anyway, it’s a cool conversation across time, this painting gig.