Norwegian Stabbur

I laughed when I first saw the grass and trees on the roofs of the old Norwegian buildings, and I was amazed that some had stood for over a 1000 years. This stabbur, storage building, was at the Numedal Folkehogskole in Rollag, Norway where I studied for a year. I chose to paint it in winter because of the rich complementary colors. The snow covers the grass roof, but the trees on it are still visible. There's a Norwegian folk story where a man thinks woman's work is easy, so his wife challenges him to do it for a day. He has a miserable day of mishaps, but the funniest is when he puts the cow on the roof to graze and ties a rope around the cow and through the chimney to himself – so the cow wouldn't fall off the roof. Of course, the wife comes home to find the cow dangling off the roof and her husband stuck in the chimney.

Status of original: Sold 

Prints of this painting are available in the following size: Small.