An iron-age-fortress & a tiny finshing harbour

"One year - One Island" - week 11 & week 12

Today I'm going to show you where I was with my painting project for the turn of the year - yes, I'm behind on my diary. One of the reasons is my sick rooster, Rasmus, who has had chicken flu for three weeks. Yes, just laugh, I know how that sounds. But it's a really long-winded thing and requires a lot of dedication (and therefore time) to save the handsome guy from death. Since I'm a vegetarian (also) for animal welfare reasons, killing my chickens is only an option if I can't save them at all and thus spare them suffering.

So here is my place just before the end of the year: Eketorp Fort. I've been thinking about whether I should paint this place, since it's actually a tourist attraction on Öland and I want to show an Öland away from the tourist spots. That also applied to the lighthouse. But at the same time, Eketorp is the only one of the 16 fortresses on Öland that has more to show than just a pile of overgrown stones. Since I cannot paint from a bird's eye view to show the oval shape of the stone remains of any fortress, a painting would not have been at all meaningful. But since these fortresses from the Iron Age are an important historical fact and therefore also typical of Öland, I could not help but paint one of them. Eketorp, then. I find the view when you approach this fortress from a distance particularly impressive. As if it had fallen out of time - as if you were walking in a historical Hollywood film. Nevertheless, I then decided on a perspective that was closest to a bird's eye view for me as a non-bird. I sat down between the battlements. I was out very late that day and the sun was already low, even though it was only early afternoon. But that's what made the picture interesting. I struggled quite a bit with the shadow-light contrast and added dark glazes several times because the shadow didn't seem dark enough compared to the orange light. I hope that the mood comes across well. I am always amazed that here in Sweden, the sights are so open that you can go in at any time of day or night. The fortress gate was simply wide open and there is no barrier around the walls. In summer you have to pay to enter (at least during the day ;) but in winter it is simply open.

Just very briefly, for those of you readers who know nothing or very little about Öland:
Öland was first mentioned in writing at the end of the 8th century AD, but it was settled long before that. Thanks to its location directly on the Baltic Sea trade routes, the island flourished during the Iron Age (around 750 BC - 1025 AD). However, the prosperity attracted pirates, who were a scourge of the Baltic Sea until the 12th century. The narrow and flat island offered very little protection to the population, which is why Öland has such a high concentration of old fortresses. Well-off merchants could afford a house in the brick oval, but the vast majority of people on Öland had to leave their houses behind and flee to the fortresses when the enemy came. Eketorp is the most famous of the 16 remainings, not least because it is the only one that has been reconstructed. It serves as an object of demonstration to illustrate the different eras. The reconstructed thatched longhouses in the middle ov the oval is a museum - but of course it can only be visited in summer and for an admission fee.

Gräsgårds Hamn:
On January 7th I visited a small harbor, Gräsgårds Hamn, which we discovered in our first year here on Öland. On my tour it represents all the many tiny fishing harbors here on Öland - almost every village here used to have a harbor. Some harbors can no longer be found, they have been eroded by wind and sea over the decades. One of the main sources of food for the islanders was the sea, i.e. fishing, because - as I wrote last week - the Ölanders were forbidden to hunt. So the only thing left was their own livestock and fish. After limestone mining, this must have been the hardest way to earn a living here on the island. There is a highly acclaimed documentary film about the history of fishing on Öland, "Ur sund, ur hav" (link to film homepage ), which shows what an extremely hard life it was. Nowadays there are only a few handful of fishermen left. The Baltic Sea has been pretty much fished out and the government regulations to protect against overfishing have probably put an end to many fishermen. Here in Gräsgård Hamn, however, there are still a few fishing boats in the summer, or at least that was the case a year or two ago. At the moment, the harbor is deserted – no fishing season I guess.

I picked this Tuesday out of the week to paint because the weather forecast said it would be sunny - the only day of the week. Well, it was sunny, but also very windy.

I know, you can heardly hear me at the end of the video, but I thought it would be interesting to see anyhow (and authentic -ha ha). And - I am sorry - but I do not know how to make my voice louder and the wind more silent with an app.

In my search for an alternative motif or an interesting angle of the harbor for my painting, I got wet shoes because I walked across the flooded meadow to a small fisherman's cottage. When I got there, I discovered that the door was missing and that, in addition to the usual fishing equipment, an old jacket was hanging inside. The motif was tempting, but the wet shoes spoke against it. Also the wind, to which I was exposed there without protection. I then pulled an existing bench into the parking lot in the harbor - there I sat, protected from the worst of the wind by the surrounding buildings. To my delight (and relief) there was a public outhouse that was open. Did I mention that a side effect of my painting trip is that I not only discover new places but also lots of toilets? Yes, you laugh - I'm just grateful. As a man, that's no big deal. But when you're freezing and drinking a lot of tea, it's a problem that shouldn't be underestimated. (Ok, I promise: I won´t mention outhouses again!)

I almost finished the painting, but only almost. I then finished it at home.

Next week it's an overgrown garden with a limestone building in Mellby. It will also be about how much I want/should/must stick to the local motif. Do I want to give free rein to the artistic freedom to change a motif? What if the painting would be so much more interesting with just some corrections? I met up with an artist friend and discussed the topic. More about that next week...

See you then,