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Paintings

A few years ago, during a time of anxiety for me, personally and professionally, I was given a gift of some money with the caveat that I had to do something “selfish” with it. Meaning, I had to do something for myself that I normally wouldn’t do. So I took the money and bought myself an easel, some paints, brushes, and a canvas. I started doing what I used to love to do as a kid. I started painting. I found it calming – even therapeutic – to simply pour out my feelings through color and form and to be at play.  These are some of the paintings that I created down in my basement.  I’m not technically skilled, nor a professional artist in any stretch of the imagination.  You might simply consider me an enthusiast – a true amateur who paints for the love of it and for no other reason.  So I share these paintings simply as a way of sharing parts of myself.   Painting for me is a way to remember – to reflect on – to capture – moments of my life that matter to me.  I think God works powerfully inside of ourselves when we are willing to create.  I hope you might enjoy them as a way of getting to know me.  – Grace & Peace, Trygve
PaintingsPoetry

A Walk

On Saturday, October 27th, 2003 – I got up early – with nervous anticipation – for a walk above St. Andrews. I had suggested getting together for a sip of conversation, but quoting Kierkegaard, you thought a walk in the deer park was preferable to coffee…
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March 30, 2020
PaintingsPoetry

Ebey’s Landing

A Prairie of emerald grass slopes softly towards the western bluff edging shoreline like golden crust. Once there, take the narrow path up to the wind sheared emerald forestspiraling toward the heavens like steeples,  or beachcomb rocky marginsto engineer forts with littered logs gathering like pocket lint from the…
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December 18, 2019
Paintings

The Ride to Big Star

For years, in late August, I did a bike ride with my friends Jon VanDuinen, Dan Bolt, and Ryan Tanis up to a cottage on Big Star Lake in northern Michigan.  It was a 112 mile ride from Holland and we would have to get up…
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July 18, 2018
Paintings

The Way into the High Country

Every preacher as a line, a phrase, that they go back to again and again.  One of mine (and I have few!) is that Christ leads us into “the high country of the Trinity where the air is thin, but the glory is thick.”  This…
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April 17, 2017
Paintings

West Beach, Whidbey Island

Everyone has a spot.  A place where you go to remind yourself of something beautiful, a place to go when you feel sad, or need to reclaim perspective. When I was growing up, West Beach was that place for me.  It was part of my…
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January 5, 2017
Paintings

Summer Day at Wrigley

This is a painting I made for my son, Trygve, for his bedroom.  I wanted to try and capture the energy, the color, and and the leisure of a summer day at the grand ballpark in Chicago. Posted on Trygve's Facebook on April 20, 2020:…
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December 23, 2016
Paintings

Evening in Puget Sound

This painting was done for my good friends Ryan and Jill Tanis.  This is another painting from memory of those golden nights on the Puget Sound.  Here I was trying to play with the sky and to capture its energy and its ever-changing moods.  I…
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September 20, 2016
Eugene PetersonPaintings

A View of Flathead Lake

This painting was inspired by the view outside of Eugene and Jan Peterson’s home on Flathead Lake.  The Peterson home was a place of retreat and pilgrimage for myself and many many others.  I painted this for our dinning room to remind myself of them,…
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October 10, 2015
Paintings

Riding the Blue Ridge Parkway

About every other year I do a bike ride with a best friend, Tee Gatwood.  It’s a 5 day, 472 mile ride that takes us through one of America’s best scenic rides.  This painting was inspired by a moment on that ride. 
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October 3, 2014