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Yes I am getting old, he told me.
I
never thought it would happen to me. Of course I should have know
that all these days would change me, but I just thought I could go
on for ever. He
smiled and his face curled up like an old paper in the fireplace. We
were standing in
a parking place near Vessigebro, Sweden. As young boys we
had been together in Folkpark of Falkenberg listening to
the music, especially the man playing the hawai guitar. Now so many years later I was in a great hurry to get back to
Denmark because of the Corona and had no time to visit him in his remote studio. It made
him a bit grumpy. I thought you would stay with me for some time,
he told me. Yes I said, I will come back. I
have two paintings for you, he said, and fetched them from the
backseat of his old car, a battered volvo. But there is a
condition you have to fullfill to get them. -
ok, wondering what came next Yes,
they are a bit sinister especially the portrait of you as you will
look 15 years from now. I donīt like that kind of thinking
any more, the hour is getting too late. So it is a gift to you but
the condition is, that we together paint them over for new use.
It will not change anything,
but give some kind of consolation. And I want you to give me one of them
back after you have painted a new story on it. I mean, now when
you have become a painter yourself. But
we could not cover them with paint standing in the drizzle and the
fading light of the afternoon surrounded by other cars and the row
of old willow trees around us. Ok, he said, I know you want to go
back to Denmark, but we have work to do. I
could not resist his wish and followed him to his studio hidden far away in
the Swedish woodland. We arrived at a cold, dark little house made
of wood and painted red. It was a bit damp inside, but when he
brought out a bottle of red wine and lit the fireplace, I forgot
all about it. So the night came and went, the lights changed, the
pictures were covered with white color, and we talked a lot.
I will never forget the longing for the moment to stretch on for
ever. I, of course forgot to phone my love, so she got a bit
worried and called me in the grey morning light. I left Ernst and
drowe home with two white canvasses in the back of the car - and a
lot of memories - and thoughts of the future. When
I left him, he raised his hand to say goodbye. I could not hear
his words. But I waved back. You can see
the results of the work below. How my painting for him is going to
be, I donīt know yet. |
