Forests, Trolls, more Art, and another Church

 Wednesday, 13 July

 

For my last day in Värmland, I suggested a drive to Arvika, and an art museum there which I'd visited once or twice in the past - but long ago, and not with my brother. As he's the driver, I left the planning of how to get there to him. To drive via Årjäng may have been intentional - but an extra detour across the border to Norway was not... (I've roughly marked our route - as it turned out - on the map above.)

As we planned to have lunch at the museum in Arvika, we only made a short stop in Årjäng to say hello to the Great Big Troll that lives there. It's 8 m high and the feet measure 3,5 m. (Kids can slide down its tail behind its back.)

 I also spotted a mural of another troll-like creature - and I'm still wondering about the golden key!

We had happened to park our car near a mysterious building, reminding of a Roman palace -  probably an old cinema - and when we got back there, there was also a rather posh car parked right in front of it, begging for attention from my camera...

That's about as much as we saw of Årjäng, before driving on - as we thought - towards Arvika. The way there just seemed to get longer and longer, though - until suddenly, to our surprise, we found ourselves crossing the border to Norway. And that - as I already said above - was not in the plan! We were driving without GPS because my brother had problems with the battery in his phone; and we must have taken a wrong turn somewhere - probably already when leaving Årjäng... Luckily, I did have my Swedish road atlas in my 'car bag' - and for the rest of the trip, I kept that open on my lap, double-checking every turn! ;-)

After some further adventures on small roads through the Wermlandian forests...

... we finally did arrive at Rackstadmuseet in Arvika, in the middle of a rain shower...
(I took the exterior photos later, when we left, rather than on our arrival.)

We started our visit with having lunch in their café, before doing anything else!

From the Museum's web site:

The activities of Rackstad Museum have their origin in the artist Christian Eriksson, whose father ran a small farm and a furniture business. 

The Rackstad colony was a group of friends, all artists – including Gustav and Maja Fjæstad, Bjorn Ahlgrensson and Fritz Lindström - who were active in the area around the turn of the century 1900.

The driving force for young artists of the time was a nationalistic romantic longing for nature and the environment and costumes of country folk, as well as a search for light, darkness and sadness. Another important reason for living in a rural area was the opportunity for cheap accommodation and access to food.

Rackstad museum combines local art history and craftsmanship with contemporary art and craft - locally, nationally and internationally.

Bottom left: Girl by water. Oil 115x178 cm by Gustaf Fjaestad.

Värmland/River Klarälven, landscape by Fritz Lindström (1922)

 

Diana. Sculpture by Christian Eriksson (1912)

Paintbox that belonged to the artist Ture Ander;
and his painting of Lake Racken from 1942.

 

Winter, 1917 - Oil 107x145 cm by Gustaf Fjaestad
(scanned from postcard)

Cupboard by Carl Westman. Copper/tin items by Lisa Morell.

More rain hit us on our way back to Karlstad, and cut our next stop shorter than intended.

In Brunskog, there is an outdoors museum of old buildings, where in summer they also show and deomonstrate various old-fashioned arts and crafts - especially during one week of a big event known as Gammelvala = 'The Old World'.  That was not the same week as my Värmland holiday, though; and considering the weather, we gave the old cottages a miss, and just went up to have a look at the church.

 It's a beautiful church, and I have memories of attending a friend's wedding there once.

 

From there, straight back home - to a nice warm cup of tea!

It's quite common here these days to find special tea-blends in the souvenir shops at famous places, and that's a kind of souvenir we both enjoy buying on our trips - to prolong the holiday feel into the autumn... These are the three that I bought on this trip. To the left, a black blackberry tea from Rottneros Park. In the middle, a green tea with strawberry and lime, from Mårbacka. To the right, a red bush (rooibos) tea with bergamot and lime from the Rackstad Museum.