Beside this display, there was an artisan painting on a red wooden horse. She was Ms. Maja Carlstein from Dalarna (Dalecarlia) in Sweden, and the horse was a Dalecarlian horse.
A Dalecarlian horse has a history of nearly 400 years. It was originally a toy for children but is now one of the most popular souvenirs of Sweden. I have one myself, but this was the first time to see how it was painted. There were already some people around Maja, looking fixedly at her work. I joined them to look closer.
It was amazing how smoothly and skillfully she used her brush. I didn’t think the patterns could be corrected later by overpainting them. High concentration was obviously required for each stroke. It was especially interesting to see how she drew blue arcs on the horse. The blue paint was added only partly on the brush and the rest of the brush remained white. In this way, the two colors were put on the horse at the same time with each stroke, making fine gradation between the blue arcs and the white part. It reminded me a technique of Japanese ink painting my uncle showed me once, though in his case, the gradation was made with black ink and water.
Everyone around her was drawn into her work and looked for a while. I wondered how long it took to acquire this craftsmanship she had. I feared to break her concentration but finally could speak to her. Here I’d like to thank Maja for letting me take pictures. Tack så mycket!
After that, I walked around the venue for a while and went back to Hamamatsu. It was a long day. I came home about 20:30. My first trip with Seishun 18 in this season was over.
Then I had dinner. This is thin bread I bought at IKEA. It is my most favorite food in Sweden, and I went to IKEA mainly because of this.
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