Nina Johansson

One of the sheds on the island. For the pattern to the right, I used some kind of ventilation (?) grid that I found in a junk pile in the shed.

20 x 19,5 cm, watercolours on Fabriano Artistico 300 gsm rough grain watercolour paper.

Another, bigger, version of the cable tower on the northern cape of Norrbyskär, called Kalmarn. A smaller version was posted here. There is yet another version, coming up within the next few days.

Full sheet, 56 x 76 cm, watercolours on Fabriano Artistico 300 gsm rough grain watercolour paper.

This building used to be the island´s hotel, back in the day. Now it´s a private summer house.

20 x 20 cm, watercolours on Fabriano Artistico 300 gsm rough grain watercolour paper.

A row of houses from Långgrundet again. Not quite as in real life, more a wintry and bare version from my head.

19,5 x 20 cm, watercolours on Fabriano Artistico 300 gsm rough grain watercolour paper.

Bad weather gives smashing skies over Norrbyskär. Breathtaking, sometimes.

19,5 x 20 cm, watercolours on Fabriano Artistico 300 gsm rough grain watercolour paper.

On the part of the island called Långgrundet, there is a long row of white wooden houses. They were the homes of workers and foremen in the saw mill. Twentytwo buildings, four families in each one, along a straight narrow road, about one kilometer long. Just imagine all the people who have walked that road since 1900 or so…

56 x 76 cm, watercolours on Fabriano Artistico 300  gsm rough grain watercolour paper.

If you stand down by the water, just beside that tiny little house to the left in the last painting I posted (”The first thing you see”), and look westwards, this might catch your eye.

52 x 20 cm, watercolours on a quite heavy watercolour paper that I can´t seem to remember the brand of.

This is what meets the eye when you come to Norrbyskär with the ferry. Well, actually, the ferry is in this picture, so I guess you´d have to be in some other kind of boat…

52 x 20 cm, watercolours on a quite heavy watercolour paper that I can´t seem to remember the brand of… Not Fabriano, like most of the others.

This is kind of a sister painting to Stugu, that I posted yesterday. They are both the same size, and of similar composition – I thought it was fun to try to make two related paintings for once. They hang beside each other in the exhibition.

Norrbyskär has a long history, most of the houses were built a few years before 1900, when a man called Frans Kempe thought this would be a perfect place for a steam saw mill. He built up a whole community on these islands, with the mill, worker´s housing, a shop, school, church, health care, and so on. About 1400 persons lived here when the saw mill was at it´s peak. In 1952, the mill was closed down, and the islands went through a lot of changes until the early seventies when the houses were sold to private persons. Some people lived here all year round for a while, but now all the buildings are summer houses, except a guest house and a YMCA camp site. The saw mill was unfortunately torn down a long time ago, but the machine house next to it has been turned into a museum and art gallery.

The house in this painting is the church building on the island. The church room is on the second floor, quite simple but beautiful.

50 x 50 cm, watercolours on Fabriano Artistico 300 gsm rough grain watercolour paper.

This painting is a little bigger (see measures below), and has a sister painting, coming up tomorrow on the blog. This is one of the houses on the part of the island called Stuguskär, hence the name. There are twelve of these houses, one of which I spend parts of every summer in. I feel lucky to have that opportunity.

50 x 50 cm, watercolours on Fabriano Artistico 300 gsm rough grain watercolour paper.