So far so good! I’ve arrived at Ålgården in Borås, Sweden. Coming in to land at Gothenburg was wonderful. The clouds’ shadows were cast on the sparkling sea and there were hundreds of islands, forests and lakes.The plane landed half an hour ahead of schedule due to strong winds! Christina, one of the artists from the studio, met me at the airport and, after being taken for curry as a welcome, I spent a great afternoon looking around the studios and gallery with her, and two other artists, Björn and Anna. There is a lithography, screenprint and glass studio, a separate intaglio studio and a beautiful old building which houses the gallery with studio space above it accessible via a spiral staircase. Some of my prints are already on display in the gallery as part of the Resident Artists Exhibition and it was great to see my name on the poster as I arrived (I’ve also been written about in the local paper along with the other artists).

I’m staying in the main artists’ house (see photo below) with kitchen, bathroom, framing room, computer room, library and two bedrooms. All the buildings are next to the river Viskan and the woodland nature reserve. Following a rather lengthy supermarket trip where I struggled to determine what products were what and got very sidetracked by the vast array of berries, mushrooms and cheeses, I had a run in the woods. I’m pretty sure I’ll be spending a lot of time in them running, drawing and getting inspiration for prints. They are a beautiful mix of hazel, pine, oak, ash, lime and birch trees with ferns, lichen and mossy rocks. Tonight it was damp and a wispy mist hung between the trees. Apparently it is possible to see hawfinches, dormice and speckled nutcrackers. They are a member of the crow family and you know how much I like crows! 🙂