Later this month, the Nordic Heritage Museum will feature work by Ørnulf Opdahl, one of Norway’s most distinguished contemporary landscape painters. Opdahl’s exhibit, “Mood Paintings of the North,” will bring more than 30 of his newest works and will run from June 28 to September 1. Opdahl will be at the opening and will give an artist talk on Saturday, June 29.
From the museum:
Opdahl’s works are distinctly influenced by the dramatic west coast of Norway. He lives and works on the island of Godøy, which, like thePacific Northwest, is marked by contrasts in elevation, transitory weather, and ephemeral light. The landscape of the SunmøreMountainsand nearby fjords informs his work and reflects his knowledge and affinity for his surroundings: the glaciers, the trails around the fjords, and dramatic cliff faces.
His approach to landscape work is meditative, and his subdued palate conveys a sense of the atmospheric; paintings of colossal mountains and deep fjords are rendered expressively in shades of grays and charcoal black, bringing to the viewer a sense of proximity and radiance.
“Nature has the leading role in Ørnulf Opdahl’s art; wet, cold, rough, poetic, and, at times, almost abstract,” says Lizette Gradén, Ph.D., chief curator of the Nordic Heritage Museum. “His interpretations of the Norwegian west coast nature may be seen as a renewal of the Norwegian landscape painting in the tradition of Johan Christian Claussen Dahl and Peder Balke. A mixture of concrete experiences and abstract impressions converge in his quest to capture the landscape’s changing mood and atmosphere. Opdahl distills the mood of western coastal landscape of Norway, which is much likeWashington state, but on steroids.”
For more about the exhibit and other upcoming artists at the museum, click here.
Images courtesy Nordic Heritage Museum
