Wednesday, August 16

Visiting the Royal Palace with Helene

A visit to Norway by our grand child Helene give us a great possibility to show her (and ourself) the interior of the Royal Palace in Oslo
We start with some external images showing her in front of the palace including the Kings Guard Daniel and Tullen in the rear garden. In addition a photo of our queen Maud, princess of UK and her husbond King Haakon VII.
The statue of King Haakon is placed outside the royal garden at the June 7th square
It was originally named The Triangle Square, but was renamed in 1962 after 7 June 1905, the day when the Union between Sweden and Norway was declared dissolved by the Norwegian government. 

It is not permitted to take photos inside the palace anymore. Last time we visited the palace there was no such limitation, but on the web you will always find images taken hidden or by official media.
I therefor present some of the rooms we visited based on web images.
See also The Royal Court

One of the most famous rooms at the palace is the Bird Room where official photos of guests together with our Royal Family are taken. There are 43 different birds painted on the walls covering images of Norwegian landscapes
The next saloon is the waiting area for foreign guests and the come-together room for ministers before the weekly meetings between the king and his councel.
The Council of State is the name of the government body that is meeting every Friday to make formal  state desicions. The king and / or the Crown Prince are leading the meetings. Their chairs are are red and seen in the front of the table.

From there we moved to the Mirror Room or Queen Maud´s saloon. To enlarge the room the queen got mounted mirrors in all doors and her piano where she held conserts for the family is still there.
This room is also used as part of the Head of State suite including the bedroom below.
This bed is only used once by a person with no Head of State level. That happened after the 2nd WW when sir Winston Churchild visited king Haakon VII.
On the other side of the mirror room we were passing through the beautiful breakfast room. Be aware of the ceiling and the blue colors on the paintings on the walls.

Then we enterd the small ball-room where we this year could see some displays of the belongings to crew serving the royal family since 1905.

This is the Ball Room where the royal family arrange Palace Dances and  "smaller dinners". A beautiful room and even more beautiful than the great Banquete hall (where more than 250 seats could be serves) alongside this room.


This blogpost opened with our grand daughter Helene at the castle. I also ends it with images of Helene at Aker Brygge having Moules Frites and Ice Cream for lunch.

A great day in Oslo for us all.

Thursday, August 10

The last painting of Summer 2017


With the "Portrait of an Artist" it is time to end the production season in front of my easel on my balcony.
When moving from our large apartment at Frogner Oslo, after my leg disease, I had no more room or studio with easel inside the apartment. That made me move outdoor when painting, and part of our balcony became occupied. However, since late 2014 to date almost 40 large paintings have been signed so it is not the environment that makes limitations. In addition many sketches in A4 format have been made during my stay in Spain.


This morning painting, paintbrushes and other tools are placed into the storebox and put away before the autumn and the wintercold. No canvas are leftovers this year, and preparing blind frames and cover them with canvas, must be the job before next year spring and creativity season.

Once again I offer the world that for those of you who would like to have one of my paintings, visit my blog from september 2014 to date and have a look of the last 3 years production.
Prices are around 2000-3000 nok, but bargening is possible.