Hunting for Carl Larsson's Paintings

Hi Paladin and other grandkids or family

On Monday September 3 we left Orebro, after meeting Grandma's cousin Ewa for breakfast, and drove through the forested hills and countryside of Sweden towards Falum.  We were on our way to see the country house of Karin and Carl Larsson.  Many years ago we first saw the colorful watercolors of Carl Larsson, and we have had many calendars and prints of his pictures in our house.  They both went to art school in Stockholm but they met and married and lived near Paris for several years with other artists in about 1880.  They wanted to move back to Sweden to raise their children and moved in about 1890 to a house in Sundborn, a small town near Falum where Karin's parents lived.  The house and gardens have been preserved like they were when they lived there with their 7 children.  Karin created beautiful fabric art- rugs, weavings, pillows, furniture coverings and clothes.  Carl painted large paintings for buildings and painted portraits of rich people for his income, but he also painted many colorful pictures of his family and their life together in their house- and published several "albums" with prints of his paintings so many Swedish people could see their house as an example of a comfortable and beautiful home. We saw a few of his paintings in Gothenburg, and expected to see more paintings in Stockholm, and we were looking forward to seeing their house with more paintings and decorated walls in Sundborn.

This part of Sweden is famous for decorative wooden buildings; so we stopped at the town of Nora to drive along the streets looking at the wooden houses and other buildings.  As we were driving along the highway we noticed a large red building with a chimney so we stopped to see what it was.  We discovered this was a blast-furnace and foundry for melting iron from rocks (ore) so that blacksmiths could make farming tools and hardware items like nails and hinges.  The iron ore was mined from pits and tunnels in the nearby mountains and was brought to the blast furnace to melt and purify the iron at a high temperature which required forcing air into the burning wood (charcoal) with large bellows that were powered by water-power or steam engines.  Iron and copper mines along with the furnaces and foundries and factories making metal items were a great source of wealth for Sweden.  Some of the iron bars were shipped by wagons or trains to the large lakes in Sweden and then loaded on ships to Stockholm or down the Trollhatten canal (we saw the locks) to Gothenburg to be loaded onto larger ships for export to other countries.

We made it to Falum at 4 pm and expected to see the mining museum for an hour, but the museum had closed at 4 pm because it was September and schools had started.  Fortunately we could walk around the buildings from the old copper mine and there were several display boards in English and Swedish- so we could learn about the famous copper mine and the very famous red paint that was made from the copper ore residue after the metal was melted from the ore.  At first only the king used the red paint for his houses. Then some of the richer people started painting their wooden houses and barns with the red paint.  Soon everyone wanted the red paint to show that they were important and prosperous- and now just about everyone in Sweden has a red house and a red barn.

Aldin- most people like to copy what someone else is doing.  That is how most of Sweden ended up with red houses. Sometimes you like to follow Perrin and do whatever he is doing- like riding a bike or playing with Legos. And Taliesin likes to follow you and Perrin around the house and play with the same things that you are playing with.  Usually this is fine- to join in the fun that someone else is having. But sometimes it is better not follow or copy someone else.  God has made each of us a little different, so we sometimes want to do different things- like running instead of walking, or drawing instead of reading a book, or playing with Legos instead of watching a cartoon.  Aldin- there are other times when you should not follow someone else- when they are doing something wrong!  Don't follow after anyone who is saying bad things or hurting someone else or taking things that don't belong to them.  God wants us to make our own decisions about what is right and to stand alone (not copy) when others are not following God's directions for loving and helping other people. Aldin- you can always follow Jesus and copy Him, but you shouldn't always follow or copy other people.

Blast Furnace

Falum mining museum

Red Paint Factory

 On Tuesday we drove to Sundborn for the 1 PM tour of the Larsson house in English.  We walked around the garden and looked at the small lake with a boat dock where the kids must have fished and gone swimming.  A small dam (20 feet high) and powerhouse were constructed just upstream of the Larsson house in 1903 so the Larsson house had electricity- very modern.  The powerhouse provided electricity for the mines and mills in Falum. We wandered through the garden and next door was another garden and an old wooden house of a mine owner- we could look in the windows but it was not open for tours.  There were lots of other cute houses along the river- and a nice sunny day for visiting the Larsson house.  The house was painted red and green and white- surprise- maybe they wanted to be different from everyone with a plain red house.  The rooms were very cozy and colorful- each room had different colors with painted walls and painted doors and built-in furniture.  There were several Carl Larsson paintings in the house, and many of the rooms are shown in his paintings of his family.  There were some paintings from friends and other artists that they liked.  Many rooms also had tapestries or pillows or rugs made by Karin.  The original hewn-log house had four rooms but they expanded and added rooms and a large studio as their family grew- they had 7 children- until the house had 14 rooms.  One of the upstairs room had large wooden cabinets and bookcases they had purchased- the cabinets were so large that they lifted them into the new room and built the walls around them.  We had a great time exploring their house and finding more Carl Larsson's paintings. We bought a picture book of the house because they did not allow photographs inside the house.  We had a nice smorgasbord lunch at the café that looked over the house and then went to see the town church- because Carl Larsson had added some painted decorations on the walls and over the doors.  We then drove about three hours to Upsalla.  Our hotel was on the tree-lined river canal in the old part of town.  Our room was on the third floor with a balcony overlooking the river and the cathedral and old university buildings- what an amazing view.

Aldin- we had been hunting for Carl Larsson's paintings and we found them! And we found his house and his garden where he lived with his family 100 years ago in Sweden.  I want you to hunt for the beauty that God has painted in His creation.  You don't have to look very hard because His beauty is everywhere you look. He is the one who gave us colored light- the rainbow!  He gave us flowers and butterflies and seashells and rock crystals and snow capped mountains like Mt. Hood.  He is the one who gave us the sparkling stars and the big moon and jellyfish.  Look for God's beauty everyday wherever you are.  And tell Him "thank you" for making such a beautiful world for us to live in!

Love, Grandpa and Grandma