What is that mysteriously naked woman doing in our garden on the picnic table? Something different isn’t it, and she made our boys blush. She’s made of snow and created by one of our guests this week. She is a sculptor and almost couldn’t stop snow sculpturing last Wednesday.
We already said so, slowing down at our place and enjoy Siljans culture and beautiful surroundings gives the right energy to create and get new ideas to almost all of our guests (and us too). This time it was above all painter and sculptor Anders Zorn (Mora, 1860-1920) who did the job.
Zorn painted many portraits but is also famous for his nude paintings. His fondness of painting full-figured women gave rise to the terms Zorn’s kulla or dalkulla, an unmarried woman or girl from Dalecarlia, as the women were called in the local dialect of the Mora region where Zorn lived. We have some posters of his nudes in the master bedroom of the Fähus. They immediately appealed to our guest and they paid the Zorn museum in Mora a visit to see some of his paintings and sculptures in real.
Wednesday’s freshly fallen snow and slowing down did the rest. her first experience with snow sculpture, and who knows: she will come back to sculpture more in the mountain of snow in our garden. Our English guests that arrived later that night were surprised to see that strange woman of snow. Last night she looked a bit scary too I must admit, in the dark with shadows caused by the light of the outdoor lightning.
But it gives us great joy to see that people get this special energy to create. Heleen van Rheenen works mostly in stone, her images are figurative. They include female figures, realistic and, if the stone allows it, remains a part in original condition. She also works in clay and wax. The result she casts in bronze. A great example of one of her smaller works is an intimate but lively group of family members she made on commission. She works in her lovely studio in Maurik, in the middle in the Netherlands. (We know it’s lovely since we used to live in her house before we moved to Sweden.) You’ll find more work and information on her website www.heleenvanrheenen.nl
We are inspired by her too: we would love to have an exposition of her sculptures in our garden during the summer. Unfortunately, her work is too heavy to move all the way up here. So if you are a sculptor (in stone or even more convenient: wood) and you look for a nice space to exhibit your work, send us a message! We make sure you’ll get attention.