Torild Inger Børretzen
Knut Ormhaug Mag.art. writes:
Landscapes and still life are important subjects in watercolours of Torild Inger Børretzen. She catches the poetry in her rendering of everyday life and common objects – a bowl, a flower, a stockfish, a boat, or a landscape. Her pictures become personal and heartfelt depictions, where she combines the picturesque with precision, warily use of colour and the visual structure of watercolour paper. Børretzen’s pictures are poetic, contemplative and expressive.
Torild Børretzen’s aquarelles give new strength to the experience of the nature that is surrounding us. She shows us a variety of light effects and atmospheric feature of landscapes. This will appear as lyrical impressions of nature.
In other paintings she has a different approach; she simplifies and tinges the surface, which makes the landscapes into abstracted shapes. This makes one perceive the landscapes as timeless. –Only influenced by seasons, light, climate and by the landscapes character.
It is distinctive that many of Børretzen’s landscapes are depicted without people in it. Landscapes and nature has its own importance to her, and it’s sensed and illustrated without emptiness. We perceive a symbolic aspect that may be described as a touch of melancholy. Like this, the paintings will obtain energy that raises them above seductive décor, and we sense that a past experience is the true cause. The landscapes done by Torild Inger Børretzen are painted in a modest expressionistic manner.
Jaqueline Stare, editor of “akvarellen”,writes:
Colour is important to Torild Inger Börretzen, irrespective of what
technique she works in and she has the same basis when she builds up a composition whether it is a still life or a landscape. She often cuts down the motif, and clears it in order to sharpen the expressiveness and to create excitement in the picture.
She finds support in her absolute conviction that what she works with is important not only to herself but also in different ways to very different people. She has quite simply something to share with others.
The series of Stockfish watercolours started in frustration during a period of ill-health. It turned into a whole exhibition of fish watercolours and one was shown in Bilbao in 2006 at the ECWS exhibition there.
Torild Inger Børretzen to Atelier Magazine (The Netherlands)
I am a woman, born (1951) and raised in Etne by a deep fjord surrounded by beautiful mountains in the west of Norway. This landscape, this environment, its color, depth and harmony is underlying all my art. In my village, there were no museums or art galleries. I didn’t know any artists, only a teacher who had a brother that was one. But i had the urge to create …
The luck was to have school books filled with art illustrations by modern Norwegian artists. This gave me the inspiration to go outside and paint what I could see in the nature. My first small study was nontransparent watercolor. I was 12. The painting was of the view from our porch a spring day. I also tried to copy paintings of Henrik Sørensen, Harald Kile and other arts I could find in calendars and magazines. The artist that impressed me the most, was Edvard Munch (1863-1944). He also inspires me greatly today.
I always wanted to become an artist, but since it is an uncertain path to go, I had to comfort my parents with the idea that I always could become a teacher in arts and crafts. I came to the city of Bergen in the middle of the Hippie-age (1970) to get classic education in drawing, painting, graphic techniques and ceramic (pottery). I never used my pottery knowledge professionally, but it was useful to make me conscience of shape and texture.
At the age of 28 I had my debut with aquarelles, pastels and graphic work, in a solo exhibition in Bergen Kunsthall. Since then, I have had my own art studio and produced and exhibited many places in the far stretched country of Norway. It was important to reach out to the districts of Norway with my works. Art to the people was my thought. Some times I’ve had golden days, other times I’ve had to teach to survive. In the middle of my education, I had a daughter as a single parent, and then we were two that had to get by economically and practically. Norway has god economical support for single parents, and that made it possible for me to finish my education and achieve my goals as an artist. One could say I lived like a bohemian, - simple, but with a lot of fun and freedom. Music and dance helped me to create... and it still does.
There is also longing, worries and sorrows. Nobody can escape such feelings. But I am privileged to get to express them in my paintings. I wrote when my mother died (2002): “The passed year with loss of my mother and childhood home in Etne, has colored my recent artworks. There is a wish of comfort, calmness and harmony. I use a lot of blue color. If one mixes the melancholic blue with happy yellow, then you get the green hopeful color. The growing hope and life goes on. The process has started. Joy waits…”.
As a young art student I discovered the technique of aquarelle. This has been an important tool in my art production. By simple means and light equipment, it can be possible to make both sketches and fully completed artwork. As the technique has simple tools, it is hard to master. Creator, idea, paper, water and color must work together in the best way. It is impossible to copy an aquarelle, and therefore impossible to falsify.
Nature inspires me and I use it to express our mind. In my youth I was in Tate Gallery to view the art of Turner. It was impressing, but it didn’t strike me like a little watercolour. Emil Nolde (1867-1956) gave me a punch directly to my heart. It was å passionate and wonderful expressed piece of landscape. I'll never forget it. Later on, I read books about him. As an old man he lay down on the ground, stretched his arms and embraced the Earth. Just that feeling of love of nature did he manage to give us in that little piece of art. This is my Ideal….real art to me. Van Gogh: strong feelings and a deep beauty. The female artist, Georgia O`Keefe and her feminine and erotic landscape, objects and flower. She inspires me.
Edward Weston, the photographer makes me happy with his photo of nature and his study of flowers and shell. He uses the light and the lines in the pictures so sensual and with such beauty. Bonnard the painter composes his rooms delicately and is a fine colourist.This among others are my inspiration…changing from time to time, but underneath they play a role.I use objects from our everyday surrounding to express more than it seems in the surface. It is lines, balance, contrasts and colour that helps me to have this result. Seldom have I made an abstract composition, but I often have a figurative element in it. My goal is Expressionism. It must have deeper meaning than the decorative.
Stockfish was produced in North-Norway for decades. It is Cod, Haddock and Pollock being dried in the cold wind without any salt. This export made by Dutch and Germans was the reason of Bergen becomes a town of shipping and merchandise. It is still shipped to Catholic country. Such a fish lay on my red table. I was frustrated and ill from allergic reaction of oil paint and had an outbreak of rheumatism on one eye. I was tired and had a lack of inspiration. I looked at the headless dry fish ..it screamed at me. This scream was just like I felt it, and I start to paint. The series of the fish was so satisfying...my bad temper was gone. I had worked myself out of the depression. Since then I've got 3 fishes that turned to be my models, not food. Now I let them dance, sing, laugh, kiss and make love. One of these works; “and the day returns too soon” was my contribution to the Watercolour festival in Antwerp this year.
Utsmykking på Hurtigruta M/S Finnmarken.
Dette er fire av femten arbeid eg laga for Hurtigruta Finnmarkeen.
Eg fekk ioppdrag å laga akvarellar og Maleri som skulle hengja i tre rom. Temaet var fjell og fjord rundt Bergen. Eg fekk fritt spelerom, men fekk ein fargeskala som eg skulle harmonera med. Eg kalte serien for" Vestland Vestlend når eg ser deg slik"
Her er eg med ein av æresgjestene dåverande samferdsleminister Torild Skogholm. Det var ho som stod for dåpen av skipert.
