Scandinavian Roots exhibit at Belskie Museum
Photo: Thor A. Larsen
The Scandinavian Roots exhinit at the Belskie Museum.
Submitted by Thor A. Larsen
On a very hot afternoon in Closter, N.J., at the Belskie Museum, there was a grand opening of the Scandinavian Roots exhibit and sale of fine arts and crafts by eight artists of Norwegian ancestry. More than 90 visitors enjoyed the museum’s pleasant temperature, cool drinks, wine, and an array of foods as they perused some excellent representations of the arts with Scandinavian themes.
A range of rosemaled objects were presented by Lise Lorentzen and Doris Jensen. Objects included plates, a cabinet, and wooden containers with rosemaling patterns from different regions of Norway. Sarah Smith provided an array of plates of different sizes featuring bees as subtle themes.
Brit Birkelund’s wood carvings were diverse and very original, including intricately carved spoons, birds, benches, and baskets. Doris Andersen provided beautiful brightly colored patterned quilts. Her husband, Odd, provided a large array of Norwegian and sea-themed paintings, many of Norwegian ships such as the Stavangerfjord, including one scene of that ship in Stavanger. Other seascapes included the waters around New York City, such as a fine painting of the Brooklyn Bridge and its base in Manhattan.
I contributed three classic fjord scene paintings done in the 1950s by my great uncle, Johan Sirnes, who was a professor of art. I also painted two pastels of winter landscapes near Woodstock, N.Y., and an oil painting of Kaaterskill Falls, in Greene County.
The exhibit and sale will be at the museum until Aug. 24, open every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
