I have just read a travel tale Sigrid Undset wrote about a visit she had to the island Selja in the 1930ies. She was fascinated by the Sunniva legend, and spent four spring days there with "the painter and his wife". The story (at least not the story I read) doesn't give the painter a name. But I was lucky to meet my own painter at Selje, on the mainland close to the island.
Kjell-Stig Amdam, and his wife Vigdis Wåge, who died last year, have created a painter's paradise on the coast, where huge windows are opened to the sea and the island. Amdam has lived in Selje since 1995, and many of his paintings and prints are inspired by the Sunniva legend and the wild west coast nature.
I know several people who have visited the gallery during the years, and I have seen several of Amdam's pieces of art, so when we were to pass by this summer the gallery was a place where we had to stop.
We had not made any appointments, but was greeted by the painter himself when we entered the biggest of his many houses. And it didn't take long untill we were in deep, friendly converstaion in the gallery cafe. After a while a blogging friend of mine also arrived, and we were all invited into Amdam's private rooms for coffee, fresh homemade apple cake, friends and more talk. Now one of Kjell-Stig Amdam's Sunniva prints is on top of my wish list :-)
Enjoy some of my many photos from the afternoon with the painter at Selje.
