Technical obstacles & motif considerations

„One year – One Island“ – week 7

My goodness – what a day!

I got off later than I wanted to AGAIN… I’m just not a morning person. This time I had already looked on Google Maps in advance where I wanted to paint. Or at least I thought so. I knew that I would be around Kastlösa – that was the necessary distance from last week’s motif. Then I discovered that Bjärby – south of Kastlösa – was a so-called „Rådby“, i.e. a row village (a village where the houses were ALL along one road) and from the satellite perspective there were several typical Öland farms with a passage to the courtyard which was surrounded by the buildings in a square. This looked promising from the bird’s eye view on Google Maps. So on my husband’s advice I took the garden cart to transport my equipment instead of the bike. I would park nearby and walk with the cart along the road looking for the right place to paint. I was in good spirits, partly because I already had a specific destination and the search for the subject would make up for the time lost in the morning. But things turned out differently – so typical when you have too specific ideas.

For some time now, a warning triangle has been lit up on the car display and the message says „Dags för service„, so no reason to worry, it had time. But after I had driven about 40 kilometers, I discovered that the message had changed and another warning light had appeared: „Skid and ABS system switched off“. That sounded more serious – and since I know nothing about engines, I first called my garage (nobody answered) and then Kex, my husband. He said I could just drive on, but I was scared and so we agreed that I would drive to a garage in Borgholm (about 10 kilometers further on my way). There, too, I was reassured: it was no problem to drive without this system and the warning message could probably just disappear again. OK – good. Time to carry on… it was getting later and later. I went on, singing along, with the Swedish Christmas channel on the radio, but near Vickleby (about half an hour later and 15 kilometers left to Bjärby) the oil light suddenly lit up and the message now said „Low oil level!“ Oh shit! I was starting to get angry. It seemed to me as if my car was determined that I wouldn’t reach my destination today. I know from experience that you can drive on with a low oil level, but you should fill it up soon and, above all, keep an eye on the engine temperature: if the engine gets hotter than usual, I should stop. Yes, I am one of those people who only give their car as much care as it demands – and only when it demands it. So I know this message from before and therefore no longer panic. In any case, it would be good if I filled up the oil before I set off back home in the afternoon. First on to Bjärby.

Once there, I drove slowly down the village street – actually to find a parking space. But I was quite disappointed: the farms actually seemed to still be in use and there were tractor tires and equipment lying on the side of the road, unrolled plastic film used to wrap hay bales and other things that are certainly necessary – but not picturesque. Sorry, Bjärby – but agriculture also has its ugly sides. What now? And where would I get motor oil here? A look at the map showed that there was a gas station and an automatic shop in Södra Möckleby (another 10 kilometers south). An automatic shop is a grocery store that operates without cash register staff. You shop there on a trust basis, scan the goods yourself and then pay with a card. Everything is under video surveillance and you may have to show your ID when you enter. Out here in the nomansland they would definitely have motor oil in their range. But unfortunately they hadn’t and the petrol station had no staff and no kiosk either. In the shop I met a person who was just filling the shelves and who said that I could only get my motor oil in Seby – that was across the Alvara on the east coast (another 9 kilometres away, unfortunately in a direction I didn’t want to go). Now I got really bad-tempered. Really pissed off at myself for leaving home so late, at my car, which was annoying me so much today and constantly coming up with new ideas, and at country life in general, without proper service around every corner (just like you would have in a city). I got really angry. Luckily my stomach grumbled loudly enough for me to remember that I hadn’t eaten anything yet and that was probably one of the reasons for my mood. So I sat in my car in the parking lot opposite the automatic shop and munched on the bread I had brought with me. It was already after 1 p.m. and I hadn’t even found a subject. What a bummer! The hot, sweet chai and my cheese sandwich helped me to calm down and think more clearly. I decided to drive back to Kastlösa (it had actually looked really nice when I drove through!) and find a subject there and finally sketch it. Then I would be able to buy the engine oil in Färjestaden on the way home. Yes, a good plan – I was already starting to feel better. And what can I say: in Kastlösa I had several nice subjects to choose from. There was the school building, the church and also the avenue that leads to Allégården. But the time factor was crucial: For me it seemed that to sketch most of those objects would take hours to do, so I decided on the winding village street with an old house and a limestone wall with a rounded wooden gate. In front of the house there is a sign saying „Anne Liis Kläderbutik„, a clothing store – very typical for Öland in an outbuilding that has been converted into a shop, without any shop windows or neon signs. It is precisely these kinds of shops that make this island so charming. It was great that I had the opportunity to include a shop like this in my pictures. I was able to park the car next to the cemetery wall and carry the camping chair I had brought with me straight to my chosen workspace.

So there I sat – FINALLY – and sketched. I didn’t have much time before the light disappeared. It was a grey day anyway, which flattened the motif (light and shadow are what really make a watercolor interesting). When I finished the picture at home, using a photo as a template, I realized that I had painted the hedge behind the house too high – just in the same line as the roof – and that the composition had become more boring then it would have been without this mistake. I then sneaked in a bit of evening sun – that allowed me to bring in a bit of shadow that wasn’t actually there – to make the picture somehow more 3-dimensional.

Later in the car I thought about my painting motifs and that most of the paintings were all done when the sun was at its highest – exactly when the least shadow is visible (and therefore the light-shadow contrast in the painting is less than at any other time of day). I remembered the strong orange sunset from last week, which I had only seen in the rear-view mirror and which would never make it into a picture for the painting project. While I thought about it, I drove past houses lit up for Christmas in the dark and asked myself how much I could/would/should stick to the actual weather and lighting conditions when painting. What if I painted a motif as if it were already sunset? Since I can orient myself using the cardinal directions, the motif would only be shown with a time shift. So like a kind of time jump but at the same place. How authentic would my paintings be? What is the goal – what is MY goal? Do I mainly want to get to know Öland or do I mainly want to paint „pretty“ pictures? Do I want to capture a real moment on paper? But how realistic is that if I work on a painting for several hours – which „moment“ during those hours are ”the real one”? I need to think about this more …

Then I suddenly had an idea: on the way from Södra Möckleby back to Kastlösa I had stopped at Gettlinge gravfält and photographed the stone settings with the windmill in the background – just for myself. I will use this photo to paint a picture showing a sunset that wasn’t actually there when I took the photo. Just to see how it works and if it could be an interesting painting… I hope I can post such a painting next week – of course beside the next week’s painting – which will take me to Södra Möckleby or Degerhamn or the surrounding area, I guess. I would be happy if you read along again – next week too.