Recently in Rosemaling Category

The votes for the may June Virtual Rosemaling Challenge have been counted and the winners are:
First Place: Entry 6
Second Place: Entry 3
Third Place: a tie between Entries 3 and 9
You can look at the entries here:
http://rosemalingblog.com/grc/May-June%20Challenge.html 

Thank you everyone who entered and everyone who voted!

The members of the Global Rosemaling Club have sent some lovely entries for the virtual challenge.  The theme for this challenge was wedding gifts.  There are some very lucky brides and grooms out there who received these gorgeous works of art as wedding gifts! 
The gallery is here: http://rosemalingblog.com/grc/May-June%20Challenge.html 
Be sure to visit and send me your vote for your favorite entry.

I am a self taught rosemaler.  The two books that were invaluable in my learning and understanding of rosemaling were "Norwegian Rosemaling" by Margaret Miller and Sigmund Aarseth, and "Norwegian Rose Painting in America: What the Immigrants Brought" by Nils Ellingsgard. Jackie Shaw's stroke workbook was be a big help to improve my technique. As part of my self study I have painted patterns by Joan Dahl, Diane Edwards, Vi Thode, Gayle Oram, Louis Mueller, and Gary Albrecht. My breakthrough was when I read a quote by Sigmund Arseth. He stated that a student should not copy patterns for more than two or three lessons. “This can become a fatal habit that will prevent the student from ever advancing to the creative level in rosemaling.” (Uh oh!) I took his advice to heart.  Now, I rosemal freehand.  I find freehand painting more enjoyable and creative! My personal goal is to be able to rosmal freehand in a style that is uniquely mine.

My favorite style is telemark rosemaling. It is so lavish and lush in its curves.  The lavish free flowing scrolls are decorated with teardrops and tendrils in excess.
My rosemaling can be seen in my galery: http://rosemalingblog.com/gallery/Rosemaling%20Gallery.html

I have taught rosemaling through the local Adult Education program.

I am the Virtual Challenge Moderator for The-Global-Rosemaling-Club@yahoogroups.com.  The members of the Global Rosemaling Club are an inspiration to me. I am inspired by their talent, their friendliness, their encouragement, their desire to learn and improve, and their dedication to rosemaling.  Roseemaling would not be nearly as fun as it is without them!  
http://www.rosemalingblog.com/blog/2008/01/youtube-rosemaling-tutorial.html

http://www.rosemalingblog.com/blog/2008/02/new-rosemaling-tutorial.html

I sell my art on Etsy at linnearose.etsy.com  So far though I only have a little of my polymer clay art there.

We had company for the three day weekend. We really enjoyed their visit.  But the bad thing about living out in the country is that I really get buried in housework getting ready for company. Because there are no sidewalks, pavement, paved driveways, and the roads are gravel, there is an exceptional amount of dirt and vegetative matter that gets tracked or blown into the house!  The dust bunnies grow at an alarming rate here in the country! And you know I would much rather be in the barn, garden, or craft room than cleaning house!

The Sons of Norway asked me to teach a class. Who knows what went wrong, but nobody showed up. Meanwhile, some senior members happened by the lodge. They saw someone (me!) inside and called the lodge president and asked if anyone was supposed to be in the lodge. He said "No!" They decided I must be a burglar, so they locked the outer door (to trap the burglar inside until the sheriff came!).

I had left the outer door open. When I heard it close, I thought it had blown shut. I tried to open it. It seemed jammed. So I pushed against it really hard and it flew open. A senior couple stood outside looking deathly pale. I asked them cheerfully, "Are you here for the class? But, all the women could reply was, "My heart! My heart!" as she clutched her chest.
After they recovered from the shock, I was able to convinced them that I was there to teach a class. I couldn't help asking, "What are you so worried that a burglar would steal from the lodge?"
The reply? "We have 300 dozen lefse in the chest freezer!"

I didn't know there was a black market for stolen lefse!

Uffda!

Dear Rosemalers,
Let's do a new virtual challenge for May and June!
The Entry theme is: A Rosemaled Wedding Gift
No signup is needed. The challenge open to everyone who rosemals. 

This is a virtual challenge. Each person who wants to enter paints an entry on whatever surface they wish (wood, paper, or?). They email me a jpg picture of their entry by the last day of June. I will post the pictures of the entries in a gallery on my website on July 1st.

The winner of the challenge will be selected by popular vote. Everyone who wants to vote for their favorite entry should email me their vote during July 1st-7th. After the voting is over, I will announce the winning entry on the blog and on  The-Global-Rosemaling-Club@yahoogroups.com

This challenge is for fun, to grow as painters, and to inspire each other!

Email your entries to me at linnea@rosemalingblog.com no later than June 30th.

Here is an idea for practicing your outlining strokes. Practice outlining on purchased scrapbook paper. Below is a colorful scrapbook paper I purchased at my local craft store. If you drag your mouse across it, my practice outline strokes will show up in white. This is a fun way to practice, practice, practice without any prep work. Use your imagination and have fun!

Hold your mouse over the image to show the outlining. You may need to wait a few seconds.

I have finished and published my second rosemaling tutorial. This one is on painting Telemark-style flowers freehand.

If you live in an area without other rosemalers, or if your rosemaling club meets infrequently, why not join an internet rosemaling group?  I belong to The-Global-Rosemaling-Club. It is a yahoo group.  As the title suggests, the 670 members are from all over the globe including: Australia, Canada, France, Iceland, Kuwait, Norway, South Africa, and the United States.

Members share their painting ideas, pictures of artwork, rosemaling seminars dates, where to purchase art supplies, and questions and answers about Rosemaling.  It is a very friendly and helpful group.  It does get chatty and a little off topic, but that is what makes it a social club.

 Some of the popular Club events are Gift and Trading Card Exchanges.  A new club event is a monthly rosemaling challenge.  Pictures of the monthly challenge will be hosted on this website.  You can find more information about the group at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/The-Global-Rosemaling-Club/

If your email time is limited consider joining:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rosemaling/

This group is another great resource.  They are quick to answer questions about rosemaling.  The messages are strictly about rosemaling without the social aspect of the Global Club.

Hello!
  I'm very excited and happy about this rosemaling tutorial I published on YouTube.  I hope it will encourage you to have fun rosemaling without a pattern.  This first video is a tutorial on double loading and comma strokes.

   The emergence of Rosemaling has a lot to do, I believe, with pride of farm ownership. The rest of Europe was still under a feudal system where the land belonged to the King, Lords, and the Church. Norwegian farms were owned by the farmers themselves. In 1660 forty percent of the farms were farmer owned. In 1723 - 1730 even more land became farmer owned when the church owned lands were sold at auction.  If a farm stayed in the family for a sufficient length of time, special laws enacted during the Viking age came into effect. One of these laws allowed family members to redeem a family farm that has been sold.  These laws served to protect land ownership within the family. Consequently a farmer knew that improvements he made to the farm would benefit his descendants.  Perhaps he would even be remembered by his descendants for the improvements he had made.  Many farm owners made sure their names were remembered by having them rosemaled on the walls, ceilings, or built-in furniture of their farmhouse!

Brushes

I suggest my beginning student buy three brushes.  And, I use just these three brushes for painting almost everything!
Loew-Cornell Golden Taklon
Size 4 Round 7000 series
Size 6 Flat 7300 series for scrolls
Size 1 Script liner 7050 series for outlining

For painting interiors I use:

A one inch wide Flat glaze brush for scrolls
Size 16 Flat for flowers
Size 8 Round 7000 series for outlining

Paint

I suggest that my beginning students use Delta Ceramcoat. In order to keep costs down, our projects only use five colors. I like the Delta colors listed below because they closely resemble the traditional rosemaling colors.
Red Iron Oxide
Antique Gold
Prussian Blue
Antique White
Burnt Umber

I paint with Jo Sonja’s Artists’ Acrylic Colours.  (I don’t recommend these for beginners because I find I need to mix in retarder, kleister, or flow medium to produce the correct painting consistency.)
The Jo Sonja colors I use the most often are:
Red Earth
Yellow Oxide
Prussian Blue
Warm White
Burnt Umber

Rosemaling is a style of decorative painting that was originally practiced in Norway from 1700 to 1880.  It was used to decorate walls, ceilings, and furniture, as well as decorate everyday useful wood objects such as trunks, bowls, tankards, and lidded containers. The traditional media was oil paints and occasionally chalk.  

Characteristics of Rosemaling

• Decorates practical objects
• Organic feel
• Scrolls dominate the design
• Flowers are stylized
• Scrolls and flowers are ornamentally outlined
• Curved lines, not straight or geometric
• Not realistic
• Two-dimensional
• Traditional colors are toned pigments

The first piece I ever rosemaled was a barrel stave in a beginner class.  We based in the pattern in the colors our teacher told us.  Then we floated highlights and shading just how our teacher instructed. Finally we added outlining strokes where they were marked out on the pattern.  And we all went home with identical pieces. I was thrilled to be rosemaling.  But, there wasn’t any creativity in it.

I then purchased quite a few rosemaling pattern books. I proceeded over the next few years to trace the patterns, follow the directions, and replicate as closely as I could the photographs in the books.

But, my breakthrough was when I read a quote by Sigmund Arseth. He stated that a student should not copy patterns for more than two or three lessons. “This can become a fatal habit that will prevent the student from ever advancing to the creative level in rosemaling.” (Uh oh!) I took his advice to heart.  Now, I rosemal freehand.  And I have to say, I find freehand painting much more enjoyable and creative!  (I’ll have a lot more to say about making the jump to freehand rosemaling in future posts.)