The artist Olaug Vethal

During the course of her artistic career, Olaug Vethal

produced a remarkable great number of works reflecting her

strong sense of observation, artistic skill and ability to

express her emotions in a spontaneous manner. She was a

prolific and tireless worker and kept experimenting with

mediums and working on different themes until her last

days before her demise. Vethal was well known for her

expressionistic style, and instantly recognizable for

her fearless use of vibrant colours and the unrefined energy

that her paintings convey. Her repertoire was mostly based

on figurative work but included studies of landscapes,

seascapes and anything which struck her imagination from

the surrounding environment.

For most artists, the nude has always been an important

and sacred object of study. Vethal mastered the human

figure when she was a student studying at various art

academies in Norway and Germany, Her nude studies vary

from sketches et qulck short poses executed with a few

lines and washes of paint achieving the right proportion and

form to more detailed studies done with accurate precision

and toned down by a slightly sensual touch of charm. Yet,

the colours remain the same, bright, hold and eclectic.

Throughout the years Vethal also executed a number of

interesting portraits. In this selection we find some thought

provoking works which at times tend to be an indirect

message to the viewers, sarcastic arid humane; a visual

statement mostly done with unknown subjects. An

excellent example is a portrait of a nude male torso with

closed palms, at if in meditation or prayer, holding

two cigarettes in the mouth and a cigarette in each ear. It

is a warning message about the dangers at smoking or

simply a psychological manifestation of the existential

quest of the human being.

I remember Olaug Vethal also actively working with two

other artists, Jeni Caruana and Ebba von Fersen Balzan

during the nights of the Malta Jazz Festival. Each year

these artists produced a large number of paintings and

drawings, inspired by the lively atmosphere of the crowd,

lighting and sounds coming from the bands made up at

well-known international jazz musicians. The paintings

were usually exhibited at the the jazz festival in

different venues in Malta and also abroad. In this ‘tribute

exhibition find three jazz paintings showing the ability of

the artist to synthesize with multicoloured brush strokes

the figures at the musicians capturing the very depths at

their spirits.

These paintings look like an explosion of colours, with

echoes at lines and volumes in movement.

Abstraction was natural in the formation and process of

Olaug Vethal’s artistic journey. Vethal had a rigorous

academic background and so she was able to create works

dependent on design fundamentals; form, colour and

composition. Her expressionistic style explored the

relationship between man-made structures and the natural

world and then these images were translated into a more

pictorialization at her emotions. In her abstract paintings

one finds fluidity and economy at colour depending mostly

on the mood or theme the artist worked on.

Once in my writing about a critique of her work, I stated

that “like most abstract expressionists, Vethal concentrated

on the act at painting itself She ignored completely the

preconceptions of the realistic visuals and applied paint

with a maximum of spontaneity that the images she

created were an expression at the deepest level of her

unconscious. This reminds me of what Wassily

Kandisky wrote in his famous book Concerning the Spiritual

in Art, “that painting like music,should not be a description

or the external world, but rather contains its own reality,

which comes from the ‘inner necessity’ of the artist — the

inner artistic vision.”

Vethal participated in many personal and collective

exhibitions in Malta and abroad. Worth mentioning are two

important collective exhibitions held in 1999 and 2000, Il

Mara at Westin Dragonara, Malta and Seven Women Seven

Temples, at the Auberge de Provence, Valletta. During this

period interest in Malta’s prehistoric culture started to

increase and many local artists were trying symbolical

imagery related to the temples. Vethal was always

interested in ancient cultures and the life of the ’primitives”

In the ‘temples’ exhibition she had the opportunity to work

in situ with the other artists in some of the temples. In fact

part of her project was to work directly inside the

temples, so that the artists would experience the

mysterious aura at the place and

value the remarkable power at the sacred atmosphere.

These artists claimed that they experienced a kind of

’energy’ while working inside the temples. In the exhibition

catalogue Vethal stated: “I can feel that iam absorbing

energies from my

surroundings and reformulate these onto my chosen artistic

medium in terms of tree drawing and flowing paint,

luminous colour and semi abstract reflections’

It seems that, in recent years, modern and contemporary

artists are returning to the more ‘primitivistic’ aspect in the

way they express themselves. They find creative truth in

the archetypal world of the ‘primitives Art that has become

inclined towards a radical spiritualism that explains the

mysterious forces of life and death. The dissatisfaction with

society, the dominating element of materialism at the

’outer’ world, and the decadence of the cultural

canons at our values has led to an inward psychic

expression. I argue that this was clearly expressed in

Vethal’s works. If we look at the examples we find in this

exhibition one notices that there is a strong primitivistic

impulse and an animistic and mystical sensibility.

I am sure that Olaug Vethal’s legacy will remain alive in the

hundreds of drawings and paintings she produced during

the years of her career. Vethal is an incomparable artist

who followed her inner call to create what is beyond the

visible. She was also a great mentor and teacher and an

inspiration to many students and artists who worked with

her.