Feadhers and ink

   While painting, I would often stop to look at the green hills and the outlines of the mountains,at the birds flying around or soaring like dark silhouettes in the distance. I looked at them silently, and I thought, "What would it be like to be a bird? What if the sky was mine and I could glide with the wind? What if water was my mirror, place for rest, and my way? What would it be like to have wings and feathers in various shades, bright colours, and unexpected contrasts sparkling like in a dream? What would it be like to sleep between branches, keeping silent in the greenery of reeds? What would it be like to have a flimsy shelter in a storm? To be carried by the gusts of the northern wind... To use the ancient magnetic fields of the planet to find my way; to fly thousands of kilometres over deserts, oceans, rain, and human worlds. What would it feel to have the freedom to wide open my light wings and, from the top of a tree, plunge in glides, games, and joy in the middle of spring? What would it feel to be a bird in a cage, next to thousands of other caged birds, and never be able to spread my wings ... What if there was no spring, no sun or grass?" 

   Then I resumed my work with the magic of the colours. Just a human being in the space of birds, under the shadow of a tit's wing... From as early as my childhood, my life has always been connected with painting to some extent. I graduated from the Academy of Arts in Veliko Tarnovo. I have worked as a jewellery designer for many years, and for three years now, I have been studying watercolour which I am going to excel in, inspired by animals and Nature. 

    Mariana Nordgren

  Finland - nature center Haltia, 2020