Innehåll Akvarelln #4 2025

English Summary of Articles

Johan Thurfjell by Anna Sörenson Rydh
Johan Thurfjell has been active in the contemporary art scene since the early 2000s. He teaches in Stockholm at the Idun Lovén Art School where he once attended the sculpture program. His master degree is from Konstfack. He is mostly known as a conceptual artist, but his relation with watercolour had begun early on. He dreamt of working with animation drawing at Disney and took a watercolour course when he was 22. He is now exhibiting at the Nordic Watercolour Museum together with Peter Köhler and Vanessa Baird. One of his projects is Dead Calm, a series of watercolour paintings depicting ships that have sunk or were lost at sea. He does a lot of testing prior to exhibitions and states that watercolour is simple but incredibly difficult at the same time. Johan Thurfjell has learnt a lot of watercolour techniques from his studio colleague Fredrik Söderberg. Following a post-master course led by Åsa Anderson-Broms at the Royal Art High School in Stockholm his artistry took a new turn with all the “blue stuff” as he calls it. The 2-year course introduced him to alternative types of materials and media such as virtual reality, optical illusions, and theatre techniques. The blue draperies are inspired by Japanese folklore. ”Omagatoki” is the blue hour between dusk and midnight and can also be interpreted as the time when the border between life and death is at its thinnest, and the good gods and the evil spirits are able to make transitions to our world.

Markus Jäntti by Sofia Simelius
Like many other artists Markus Jäntti points out that even though watercolour usually is the first medium children are introduced to, it is exceptionally hard to master. At his recent exhibition Interplay at the Loisti Gallery in Helsingfors he showed a series of works that operated on the cross-section between painting and sculpture. On framed MDF-boards he depicted scenes from the legendary Longchamp Race Course in Paris using watercolour, pencil and small collage-like glass pieces. The contrast between the cheap underlying material and the expensive glass details combined with the child-friendly but difficult technique breaks expectations and creates surprises, which is one of the strongest things you can do in art. At the age of 13 he began to work with the graphic artist Outi Heiskanen, and later when he attended the art university in Berlin, he found interest in working with graphics combining oils, spray-painting, ceramics, and glass in an unconventional manner. He has a keen interest in horses and their long-standing relations to human beings. Ambivalence is a key word for his approach: the tradition and cultural value of horse-racing which also is brutal and unethical, the race course gathers crowds from all layers of society, and in these times of polarized debates about art and culture he wants to show that various forms of culture are dependent on each other. He continues to experiment with techniques and materials to capture the ambivalence of humanity.

Watercolours in stamps by Marianne Gross
As of 1/1-2026 Post Nord will no longer deliver letters in Denmark. Due to the digital revolution fewer and fewer letters have been sent and the need for stamps has almost died out. The stamps have often been considered collectible small works of art, and some of them were created based on original watercolour works. Here we have focused on three series of stamps that were produced from watercolour illustrations.
Spring flowers by Annette de Jonquières, 2006:
She accompanied her shipping manager husband when he was appointed to posts in Brazil, The Philippines, and Thailand. In Brazil she began painting the native flowers in watercolour (always from live models) and has since excelled as a botanic illustrator.
Play in the snow by Jens Hage, 2009
Jens Hage is a well-known Danish illustrator (see our article in akvarellen 2/2020). This series was the first stamps on self-adhesive paper in Denmark. The Danish Mail asked him for winter subjects and he was reminded of how he used to play in the snow with his siblings.
The Queen’s watercolours from original watercolour paintings by Queen Margrethe, 2018
It is a well-known fact that Queen Margrethe has a life-long passion for collecting and creating art. She is also the sovereign of Greenland and this series of Greenlandic stamps is based on some of her paintings of Greenlandic landscapes. One of the stamps was printed with an additional charity value for the cause of Greenlandic children.

Aina Stenberg-MasOlle by Anna Sörenson Rydh
You might know Aina Stenberg-MasOlles beautiful Christmas calendar motives with small elves, baby Jesus, angels, etc. Even though she published the first advent calendar in 1934 and many picture books along with thousands of Christmas and Easter cards, there is surprisingly little written about her. She came from a family of 12 children who all were encouraged to study art. Already from the age of 10 she started painting originals for printed Easter and Christmas cards for a publishing company (5000-6000 motives). Later on, she studied at the Royal Art Academy where she also met her future husband, the portrait painter Helmer MasOlle. She created 29 original calendars which were commissioned by the girl scouts’ organization. She was influenced by Japanese art as well as art nouveau, and her motives and compositions became style-forming. Her illustrated fairy-tales cannot be found at any publisher today, but it is still possible to buy some of them from the 70s or 80s in second-hand book stores. She illustrated the classic fairy-tales such as Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood as well as song books and ABCs. She died a few days before turning 90.

Ledaren av Anna Sörenson Rydh

Kära läsare och akvarellmålare!

Årets sista nummer bjuder på goda nyheter: tidningen akvarellen bli snart också tillgänglig digitalt! Som medlem kommer du att få din papperstidning hem i brevlådan som vanligt, men du kommer också att kunna läsa tidningen på din dator, läsplatta eller i din telefon. I vår nya digitala tidning kommer vi kunna läsa både nya och äldre nummer och målet är att tillgängliggöra hela akvarellens samlade utgivning. Det blir ett fint arkiv för konstälskare så väl som akvarellmålare.

I det här numret presenteras Johan Thurfjells konstnärsskap. Han är aktuell med utställningen Den andra sidan på Nordiska Akvarellmuseet tillsammans med Peter Köhler och Vanessa Baird. Sofia Simelius har intervjuat Markus Jäntti om ambivalens och akvarellens ärliga uttryck. Marianne Gross har dykt ner i frimärkets historia och dess relation till akvarell med flera intressanta exempel.

Så här till jul ställer Millesgården i Stockholm ut Aina Stenberg-MasOlles klassiska och vackra julkalendrar i original. Kalendrarna är målade i akvarell och var de första adventskalendrarna som trycktes i Sverige. Kanske kan hennes bildvärld ge inspiration till ett handmålat julkort?

God Jul och Gott nytt år önskar Anna och Inês

NAS Information

Annonser

Styrelsens hörna av Ethel Forsberg

Nordiska Akvarellsällskapet har under hösten varit delaktigt i och ansvarigt för två utställningar, som våra medlemmar bjudits in till för att möta en större publik. I detta nummer av akvarellen berättar styrelseledamoten Benita Suomi om ECWS i Barcelona där 16 nordiska akvarellmålare fick möta en internationell publik med flera tusen besökare. På NAS egna arrangemang i Fredrikshavn tidigare i höst valdes 67 av våra medlemmar ut av juryn för att möta en månghövdad publik. Hanne Nielsen, Danmarks landrepresentant i styrelsen var med och gjorde detta möjligt.

Höstens utställningar ligger helt i linje med sällskapets syfte, som är att utveckla akvarellkonsten och göra den mer tillgänglig. Och det gör vi just genom arrangemang som i Barcelona och Fredrikshavn, men även workshops och andra aktiviteter. Närmast i tiden är årsmötet i Oslo den 14 mars 2026, där aktiviteter arrangeras i anslutning till årsmötesförhandlingarna. Ta tillfället i akt, kom och inspireras i möte med andra akvarellmålare. Oslo bjuder även i övrigt på många konstupplevelser.

Nästa års ECWS arrangeras lite närmare oss, i september i Gdansk, Polen. NAS har tilldelats ett betydligt större antal verk denna gång, 40 akvareller att jämföras med de 16 vi fick välja ut till Barcelona. Det här ger alla NAS medlemmar större möjlighet att få möta den internationella publiken.

Styrelsen har under hösten fattat beslutet att vara värd för ECWS 2028. Ska erkänna att det är med viss bävan vi gör oss beredda att axla den välkända och etablerade utställning som gestaltar akvarellkonstens moderna utveckling. Men med stort fokus och engagemang har vi påbörjat arbetet.
akvarellen, vår fina tidskrift du håller i handen just nu, kommer framöver att även vara tillgänglig digitalt.

Det betyder bl.a. att du som medlem också har tillgång till arkivet med tidigare årgångar. Men du kommer även fortsatt att få din egen papperstidning.

Omslagsbild: Johan Thurfjell (bilden är beskuren)

Publicerad: 2025-12-16


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