Seeing Light
Enjoying a free morning in Stockholm on the way home from pilgrimage, I saw a poster advertising an exhibition of works by Lars Lerin at Konstakademien. I went. I am glad I did. To stand before one of Lerin’s canvases is to begin to learn what it is to see the world with an illumined eye, with gentleness. Many of his paintings are from the North of Norway. He once wrote: ‘It seems like a waste of a life to live anywhere other than in the Lofoten Islands. If possible, I am even happier here in winter snow and darkness than when exposed to the sun’s x-rays. During the dark season, when the sun never rises above the horizon, the bright points of life acquire special significance.’ He shows us how, as in this jubilant representation of the harbour in Henningsvær – and even in paintings of the interiors of fisheries.
