Painter’s Paradise: Arnor Bieltvedt’s Icelandic Imagination Is Abloom In Pasadena
“I consider myself an Expressionist. I believe in feeling and we’re alive and I want to somehow be able to transform that into a painting.”
Arnor Bieltvedt’s color-filled paintings are dichotomous. They are calming and yet still emit a sense of far-off chaos. Exploding with colors and then melancholy at times, as if you are viewing the landscapes through a dirty window. Tangled lines and bursts of color cover the canvas.
I have to have a communication with the painting. It’s not random, it really is a dialogue, a flow back and forth.
I came upon Bieltvedt’s work on the suggestion of Chase Maximus. He was a fan of the large, color-filled canvases and made the introduction on my behalf. I spoke with the artist at length about his vision and how he ended up in perpetually sunny Los Angeles from the temperature-challenged part of the globe known as Iceland.
Bieltvedt grew up in Iceland, but spent his early adulthood moving around to Germany, Rhode Island, Chicago, and Saint Louis before settling in Pasadena two years ago. His work is very obviously influenced by his surroundings. It is romantic and modern, possessing the unique quality of being able to fit into many different settings. The pieces could live in a bohemian, texture-full environment or could be the one splash of color in a minimalist space. The paintings are dynamic, seemingly simple at first glance but upon further study they become undoubtedly complicated and rich with multiple layers.
“I’ve always loved drawing and painting flowers, but I think the colors in my work may have become more brilliant since I moved to Pasadena. I’ve seen a lot of colors here that I’ve never seen before. The color here in Southern California has inspired my work greatly. It changed me and how I perceive color. Being surrounded by beautiful color and having beautiful weather and beautiful light everyday really inspires me.”
It’s odd to think that Bieltvedt first went to college to study Marketing and Managerial Technology. He’d always dabbled with “doodling and painting, on and off” but it wasn’t until he graduated that he realized his passion.
“I remember having a connection to art at a very young age. I remember there was a teacher that came to our primary school from a local art college and he brought in images of the Roman profiles for us to draw and I was really fascinated with the idea that you could learn to draw. Just that encounter with somebody who introduced art in a different way was a life-changing moment for me – that one day.”
He decided to move his life in the direction of art and re-enrolled in school, scrapping his previous studies and starting over from scratch. He earned his Bachelors of Fine Art from the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design in Providence and then continued on to earn his Masters of Fine Art from Washington University in St. Louis.
“Everyone has their heroes and Max Beckmann the great German Expressionist is one of my favorite painters.”
Beckmann was a professor at Washington University and “just to walk the halls where he taught was a great inspiration,” says Bieltvedt.
He tends to work fairly fast, finishing some paintings in a day or two, but there have been times when he’s “signed his name to in 2007 and then I have to change it to ’08 or ’09 because I find things to add or change.”
Bieltvedt’s work is shown in public collections all over the United States, Europe and Asia, including at the world renowned Gallery Commeter in Hamburg, Germany. His paintings also hang in the homes of ambassadors, celebrities and well-known art collectors and rock stars. He currently serves as Visual Arts Department Chair and Gallery Director at Polytechnical School in Pasadena.
It’s a shame that his work is not (yet) included in a permanent collection in one of LA’s many art museums. His love for Southern California’s landscapes is apparent and his talent immense.
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