Bjørg Bjøberg: The joy of summer in flowers
News from Norway Art®
Image courtesy of Norway Art®
This idyllic scene from Balestrand by Bjørg Bjøberg is available to purchase in a fine print from Norway Art.
MARY JO THORSHEIM
Minneapolis
People in Norway love their flowers: outdoors and indoors. After dark winters, the sight of blossoms in spring and summer is a fantastic contrast. Fruit trees burst into blossom, the first hvitveis or blåveis wake up in the woods. “Fjellflora” as famously recorded by Dagny Tande Lid appear in the mountains. Bluebells ring out their rich color beside the streams or from a crack in a rock. ox-eye daisies as painted by Harald Sohlberg in his “Flowering Meadow” painting flourish in the fields.
Roses are favorite gifts for birthdays and other celebratory occasions. They seem to grow larger and more beautiful in the Norwegian climate than anywhere else! (I remember spanning a large Peace Rose bloom in a private garden in Drammen, Norway. Its width exceeded more than my hand’s that can reach nine keys on a piano!) Flowering plants that can take advantage of long daylight and cannot survive indoors in the winter are abundant in summer’s windowsills and window boxes.
Bjørg Bjøberg of Balestrand has painted many of them based on her talent to observe their details and bring rich color and reflected light into her watercolors. Bjørg’s affinity for nature and deep feeling about connecting art with it is evident in YouTube videos that give us insight into her soul and talent. Even if one does not speak Norwegian, her facial expressions and gestures give insight into her beliefs about art and nature. Learn more at youtube.com/watch?v=EuC0zK7CquY.
Norway Art has imported fine reproductions of Bjøberg’s work for many years, primarily watercolors that have been printed in Norway on watercolor paper. Now mostly out of print, a limited number of reproductions of her lovely scene from Balestrand that includes hundreds of field flowers, is still available. The ox-eye daisies predominate, but other colorful flowers surround and connect them in this beautiful moment.
This article originally appeared in the May 27, 2022, issue of The Norwegian American.
