Week 4 – Ghost towns, a haunted house and ruins in the forrest
Do you share my fascination for enchanted, abandoned or even haunted places? Places where the long past can still be seen, perhaps even sensed? Many years ago, during a trip to Northamerica, I was in one of these abandoned gold mining towns, also known as ghost towns. I think it was Bodie (link to Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodie,_California ). The many wooden barracks were mostly barricaded, but through the dust-covered windows you could see the very simple and shabby furnishings. In some of the crooked wooden houses you could still see a cup on the stove through the moth-eaten remains of a curtain. In one shed a jacket, yellowed beyond recognition, hung from a simple wooden knob. There were about 50 houses scattered across a hill between steppe grass and dirt roads. A handful of other tourists – beside us – were wandering around, reading the explanations on shabby signs for exampel on the saloon, the sheriff’s office and other public buildings that told the short but intense history of the gold rush town. To this day I don’t know whether all the old stuff were put there later for us tourists or whether the jacket actually belonged to a golddigger named Jack or Billy. There was no entrance fee and there was no souvenir shop, not even a public toilett – so why would anyone has made the effort to put all the things there?
I knew that on our island there is an old house with a special story and some people say it is haunted. I have painted it (in acrylics) and sold the painting to our municipality. I wonder if the person who works in the municipal office – where I guess they put my painting – knows the original motif on Öland.
There are also a few „Ödebyar“ on our island (as abandoned villiages are called here), but I only found out about this recently and I really wanted to have one on my project route. In my imagination I would find something similar to what I found in America: some wooden houses that sank into a deep sleep a hundred years ago. So I deviated from my route a little bit and went north of Vickleby (the last location) instead of south. It was sunny and mild and the light shone beautifully through the leaves – a perfect day for a tour through the forest. According to Google maps, the destination – Österskogs Ödeby – was in the middle of the forest east of Torslunda. Since this abandoned village lies almost exactly between the west and east coasts of the island, I could have visited the village later, when I had rounded the southern tip and would be at Bläsinge. But I had calculated that it would be around february and it would be very difficult to get to the village if we will have snow. Now, after I was there, I can tell you this much: it would have been impossible!
If you enter the destination in Google maps and let it guide you the way, the program suggests a path that doesn’t actually exist – a footpath through the forest. Where it should have been, there was only an old stone wall with a barbed wire fence stretched over it between hazel bushes. About 50 meters further on, however, a path led into the forest, which was at least used by a tractor. I parked my car on the side of the road and took my bike off the bike rack. The distance from this point to the village should be about 2.5 or 3 kilometers. So it could be done easily by bike. I thought. But at some point the bumpy forest path turned left and ended after just a few meters in a private parking space in front of a two-story building in which someone obviously lived. I turned around until I reached the junction. The forest path continued straight ahead, but was heavily overgrown and was obviously no longer in use, and you couldn’t ride a bike there either. But giving up was no option: so from then on I pushed my bike.
When I couldn’t go any further with the bike, I leaned it against a tree and let the navigation app guide me through the bushes. When I seemed to be very close to my destination, I came to a wide forest path that led me directly to the ruins of the houses. There would probably have been a bike-friendly path from the other direction. What I found didn’t resemble the abandoned village in America at all. Here there were round stones overgrown with moss, the remains of house foundations. All wooden components, such as roof rafters, window frames or doors had long since rotted away and become breeding ground for ferns, tree seeds, sweet peas and ground cover. The sun-drenched green in all shades danced around me – what a wonderful place as in a fairytale!
So many fantastic motifs, but ultimately that one wall became the template for my picture, mostly because it was a combination of stonewall and the bright flickering leaves. I thought it would be best to keep it simple (haha). But I wasn’t satisfied with the result, even if it took me hours. Therefor I did the same motif again the next day at home at my desk. This time much lighter and airier and much looser. But the second picture – in which I like the structure of the wall much better – doesn’t correspond to the actual mood of the place. This is captured much better in the first picture. But I can see that I totally „over-worked“ the first picture and the second one looks unfinished. The airy and sketchy that a watercolor should have is lost in the first picture.
The lack of looseness and the lights and shadows are something I have been struggling with for a long time with my watercolor paintings: too much time for too many details and too many layers of color, too small brushes and unspontaneous brushstrokes. The watercolor painters among you know what I am talking about. My excuse is that I never joined any aquarell lessons. For me, this struggle with the technique and which painting style should be the best for my project paintings suddenly came into focus and I would now like to use this project to work on this desired looseness. At the same time, I am wondering whether I am overloading this project with it. Is the challenge of plain air painting over 12 months not enough? Do I also have to try to get better technically now – at the same time? But yes – I want to be able to be a little proud of each picture at the end. And 52 watercolor paintings are a good training course, aren’t they? And if I completely mess up one of the motifs, I will just paint it again later – and hopefully better then.
For those of you who don’t quite understand what I’m talking about technically, here are some different watercolors in comparison:
Which style of painting do you like best? Feel free to write your opinion as a comment on Substack, on Facebook or Instagram or by email. Artistic work is lonely and I REALLY appreciate a feedback.
Have a colorful week,
Angelika