Sunday afternoon, 10 July
After our visit to Alster's Herrgård (previous post), we drove back home and parked the car, and then walked to our next destination that day: a park area by the river, Sandgrundsudden, with two museums, and also some outdoors sculptures.
To get there, we walked along the street between the river and the City Hotel (which you saw in a previous post). There are also some modern sculptures along that street.
The woman to the left (standing close to the hotel) is supposed to be a waitress and innkeeper from the past, who became a kind of symbol for the whole city. Her name was Eva Lisa Holtz (1739-1818). She was known for her sunny disposition, and therefore called "the Sun in Karlstad" (or, in Swedish Wermlandian dialect: Sola' i Karlsta'). Which has in turn come to be connected with Karlstad being known as a sunny city also when it comes to weather statistics (compared to for example Borås, which is known as one of the rainiest). The other sculptures were new to me and I don't remember what they were called.
We did not visit the old museum on this occasion, though (but left that for another day). Instead, we went to another building nearby, which "back in my day" used to be a dance hall/ restaurant, but is now a museum/ art gallery, dedicated to the works of one famous contemporary local artist, Lars Lerin (born 1954). The building itself is unremarkable (so I even forgot to take a photo of that!) - but inside, it works very well as an art gallery.
Lerin is best known for his large (huge!) water colours, mostly landscapes (of various kinds, and from different parts of the world); but he has also painted 'townscapes', people, animals, objects... He's a very productive artist, and has also published books, and participated in popular TV shows.
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| Lars Lerin (Photo from Wikipedia) |
Please note: This is not a library, but a painted library...!
I really like his paintings, especially the big sunflower sone. The portal and pool are gorgeous! We have nothing like this here. The painted library is such a clever idea!
ReplyDeleteWonderful watercolors, as well as the great big books and panoramic scenes!
ReplyDeletelove the paintings and the dog in the bag and ALL the sculptures are amazing. that library is so REAL. wow, great post today. I enjoyed all of it
ReplyDeleteI like the portal and the mirror pond very much! Of the paintings, the library is probably my favourite.
ReplyDeleteI really like a good sculpture walk in particular the big green/blue pots/vases.
ReplyDeleteThe sculptures are excellent. Lars Lerin's paintings are all superb, I like his style, especially the sunflowers. The library is quite a masterpiece!
ReplyDeleteThanks everyone for your comments! You can probably tell that I'm fascinated by the 'library' painting(s) as well :) I'd seen some of them at an exhibition elsewhere before, but I think not quite as long a wall of them then as here.
ReplyDeleteI love the paintings and the idea of the library is super but the atmosphere in the mountain and village is spectacular.
ReplyDeleteGraham, I agree - that painting is really spectacular.
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