“It is the warmest day in the last few years” they said in the news, and I was up out on a solo coastal hike in Sweden trying to find my way around unknown terrain, no routes here, just my stubborn melting figure against the burning sun, trying to climb fences and find my way around the coastline up in southern Sweden on what I hope one day will be a hiking route.
I was constantly running out of water and drinking so much that I, for the first time, began to understand the fancy drinking tube systems other people are using.
A few times I scratched down fast drawings in my Moleskine book and here are a few of them:
First one is from the small town I started out from. It used to be a fishing Village, but now rich business people are everywhere and the local market sells mostly expensive gourmet food, while Porches and open BMW cars are parked in front of the small old fishing cottages.
I took a break here on a little harbor cafe’ watching life in around the harbor with Padi Scuba courses, beautiful sailboats and business magazine reading seniors.
Mölle, a small fishing village, Kullaberg, Sweden
I went on from out to the lighthouse and from there walked on – and here are a few more sketches:
I came by the famous wood land-art sculptures at Kullaberg, called Nimis, in the self exclaimed micronation of Ladonia, check them out here: Nimis on Vikipedia.
Detail from the Nimis landart sculpture in Sweden
I went on along the water, great views and a bit tricky walking on loose, large stones, finally I reached this very quiet small village, where I found a cold Coca Cola and all the locals gathered down by the harbor watching the summer play.
Summer play at Arild in Sweden - Fast Moleskine sketch, watercolor and Ink
Walked on while the sun went down and camped at the pebble beach a few hours later, it was dark – but I could hear a lot of sheep and fell asleep untill the sun woke me up very early next morning.
Last sketch is from the next day’s long and hot day hike.
The drawing is from a place where I went through a little coastal forest and got a chance to sit a moment in the shade.
Walking in a small coastal forest, getting closer to ängelholm, my destination
Today (21 January 2010) I did a walk with my Moleskine sketchbook and watercolors, to the old Hippie world of Christiania, where the Hippies still try to live according to the dreams they agreed on, almost 40 years ago.
Here are my watercolor sketches from today:
Small hippie shop in Christiania - Copenhagen
By mistake I burned the sketch in the edge, when I tried to dry it on one of the open fires they have on the street
Two guys talking between a couple of large wood sculptures
It was freezing cold, lots of snow on the ground and my hands getting numb, so decided to go inside on a small cafe called “the moon-fisher” for a glas of tea.
The Hippie cafe "moon fisher" at Christiania (Moleskine sketch)
Back outside, I was heading down to the water, starting to sketch the amazing houses at Christiania
Christiania house between the old Copenhagen defense earth walls
Getting all the way down to the water, it was frozen and brave parents where trying to clear the snow from the lake to make a small ice skating area for the kids, while the low winter sun where disapearing behind the city (last watercolor sketch)
Kids ice skating in front of the Christiania houses down to the lake
It have been a cold day, today, but great to be outside and start to experimenting with combining walking with watercolor sketching in my Moleskine sketchbook… again
Today I went out to the airport with my daypack and watercolors to get a bit of practice.
First I hang out a bit at the Starbrucks cafe, an airport is a special place and I kind of enjoy watching people arrive and leave for far away destinations.
I was out to check my gear and do a few sketches, and prepare for longer hikes. So it was just a short hike, to a small fishing village close by, called Dragoer.
With me I had my Moleskine sketchbook and my watercolors, here are the sketches before the rain made me find shelter in a small cafe’ with warm applepie and good tea. Here are the rough sketches from today:
Started out from the Copenhagen Airport
Worked with ink, experimenting with using watercolors with the ink.
Walking along the fence
The beginning was filled with impressions from the large scale of the planes and a lot of noise.
The Oresund Bridge
Ate lunch looking out at the huge bridge, quiet autumn weather, looked like rain, but still dry
Fishing village in front of me
The ferries to Sweden used to leave from out there, but now the bridge is there the ferries have gone
Following a small path along the water
The houses along the water was both beautiful and old, I really liked the next one:
Strange narrow house overlooking the coastline
Went back to pure watercolors for this one, think that is still my favorite way to work…
About this time it started to rain and I went into the village and waited for the paper to dry on a small cafe.
Street in the village
I did the last sketch, when I found a place where I was almost out of the rain.
The sketches today was a bit different as I used more ink than I normally do, nice to get back out and get back to the notebooks
15km. of walking and a few experimental sketches in my Moleskine today
Door in one of the old industrial mills along the stream
After working with illustrations all morning, I have been twisting a bit around today, as I tried to find my balance between watercolors, ink and pencil in my work, and also keep a rhythm between walking and painting on my hike. So on the painting part I felt challenged today.
But the walking was superb with beautiful trails along 600 years old Oak trees and a small quiet stream (Moelle-aaen – Denmark) and all the way, forest and soft, easy walking. I also came by quite a few mills today. And it kind of stroke me that when the motives are really nice and romantic, they are so much harder to do – almost like the classic trouble of painting a sunset – that is really, really difficult as it almost always ends up looking like a very poor copy of the real thing.
Here are a selection of my Moleskine sketches from today:
Old industrial mill, with quiet atmosphere
Just by a little bridge crossing the stream – going into the dark forest
Opposite the tree sat an old man, I think he sit there every day and look at this tree
Oak trees can get very old, these where just around 600 years…
Taking the sea side around some famous cliffs – the video
I am researching a trail here on Stevns, but as the trail went inland, I decided to walk down to the foot of the vertical cliffs, where the Baltic sea meet the light blue flintstone beaches. My goal was to see if I could find an alternative and more exiting way around the cliffs and at the same time get a bit closer to what happened here 65 million years ago, when something really big hit the earth and wiped out around 75 percent of all animal species.
Here on Stevns there are still traces of this event, as a thin layer of almost black Fish clay up on the cliffs. The fish clay here has an extremely high amount of the very, very rare metal Iridium, that is almost only found in outer space or spread around the globe when very large meteors hits Earth. And as the fish clay here can be dated to the exact time the mass extermination took place, many now think that a meteor caused it.
Here is my note of the place and the meteor (Just started experimenting with making these notes and adding them here)
the meteor and Stevns on the map
When I come down to the beach it is around noon, I walk past a few geologists and tourists (the geologist are the ones with the small rock hammers) and head for the far end of the beach, where the cliffs goes right into the water. It is low tide now and I had kind of hoped I would be able to walk around the cliffs without getting wet feet. I decide to take my boots and pants off and see if I can get around the cliffs in the water and maybe even find some fossils on my way.
A few minutes later I am slowly moving forward in the shallow water under the dripping chalk cliffs, trying very hard to keep my balance on the slippery flintstones down at the bottom without getting my backpack all wet. I get a good grip on a flintstone, that is sticking out of the cliff and stop for a minute.
Finding a way around the cliffs
I know that right up there over my head is one of the world’s most famous profs that something went terrible wrong on earth for around 65 million years ago.
Something that was so devastating and dramatic that it wiped out around 75% of all animal species on the planet, including all the Dinosaurs, and more than half of all known plant species when this something turned the Earth subtropical climate into a deadly freezing arctic dessert for an everlasting 5000 years.
It is this change that makes geologists from all over the world swarm to Stevns Clint, because here they can eyewitness and study this event as a thin band of fish clay, that testifies one of the most dramatic events in the Earth’s ancient past.
The experts can’t quite agree, but most of them now think it was an enormous meteor, maybe more than 10 kilometers across, that changed everything in a second, when it hit the earth in Mexico (Yucatan meteor link) and spread an inferno of Iridium, dust, fire, earthquakes and volcanoes all over the planet, that again created a total darkness, killed most of the life on Earth and froze evolution to a dramatic halt, for a few thousand years before a brand new beginning would see the light of the sun. A beginning where the mammals, instead of the dinosaurs would play the main role.
On the beaches here, and in the cliffs are fossils of the life both after and before the dramatic change. Most of them are small, but some years back someone found a tooth from a Mosasaur here, a few kilometers further south.
Mosasaur and the mosasaur tooth found on Stevns
The Mosasaurs were fierce looking sea predators up to 17 meters long and near relatives to the snakes, but the Mosasaurs lived at the times of the Dinosaurs and died out together with them back there 65 million years ago… but they must have been a bit of a sight.
Looking out on the water I appreciate that they are not roaming around here anymore, as I am out of my element here in the Baltic sea, wearing my backpack and feeling my way forward along the loose rocks at the bottom.
Finally I made it around and could walk up on the next flintstone beach, happy, even though I didn’t find any fossiled Mosasaurs.
Here is a video from my mobile of me in the waves trying to get back on land somehow…
Here I will put stories about my own hikes – I am updating this section at the moment (28 july 2009) so what you see here are mostly experiments where I try to find out how to present my watercolors in combination with text.
The first image was from a cold winter hike, the next is from this summer, last one was on the same day.
Warm day where everybody were out and enjoying the weather.
Moleskine note - lady on a bench
Sometimes I take notes on watercolor paper, other times I just sketch my notes in my moleskine notebook
