The artist Olaug Vethal

Olaug Vethal was born on 10 January 1946 in the parish of

Ullensaker in Norway. Her father Ole H. Vethal was a

teacher and later the headmaster of the Follo Folk High

School and her mother Ruth Øster Vethal was a teacher.

When she was six years old her mother died. Olaug grew up

in an environment strongly influenced by arts and culture,

and promoted by her English stepmother, a graduate of the

London Acadmy of Music.

The Vethal family in the Nineteen fifties. From the left Olaugs brother Ragnar, Ole H. Vethal, Constance White Vethal, Olaug and her younger sister Åshild

Olaug Vethal took her A-levels and after three years of

studies, of which she spent one year at the Sportscollege in

Viborg (Denmark), she took up teaching in 1967. Later she

studied Philosophy and German at Oslo University. 

In 1972 Olaug Vethal married and moved to Germany, 

living in Wedel, a town on the outskirts of Hamburg. In the

early 1970s she started to paint and studied Classics and

Philosphy at the University of Hamburg. During this time

she began to teach languages at the community college in

Wedel and later taught art.

Olaug Vethal undertook art lessons under Professor

Weingaertner at the Hamburg University of Applied

Sciences (Fachhochschule für Gestaltung in Hamburg). Her

artistic carreer started with landscape paintings in

watercolours. Under supervision of Ingeborg Hansen, a

well known local artist and art critque, she took up

figurative painting. Olaug was a member of the local Artists

Guild in Pinneberg and had frequent exhibitions in

Hamburg, Norway, France and Denmark. Due to her good

contacts within the Norwegian expatriates community in

Hamburg she made friends with the Norwegian jazz

musician Anne Bråthen and was invited to paint at the jazz

concerts held in the clubs of Hamburg. Here her passion  for

painting musicians and jazz combos and the attempt to

catch the music and atmosphere on paper and canvas

began.  

Olaug Vethal and her husband Ivan Portanier

In 1988 Olaug Vethal moved to Malta where, after a short

interval, started giving art lessons again. She married the

radiohost Ivan Portanier and settled in Sliema.  In 1996

Olaug Vethal began teaching Art to Sixth Formers at the De

La Salle College in Cottonera. She tutored a number of now

established artists like Christine Xuereb, Francesca

Amato-Gauci and Priscilla Ainhoa Griscti. At the De La Salle

College she was descibed by the headmaster, John Portelli,

as a dedicated and enthusiastic teacher, who would be

close to tears when one of her students would do

badly in  exams. Through her colleagues, especially

Dr. Mark Debono PhD, she recieved inspiration for her

work as an artist, philosopher and teacher. 

Malta helped her bring to perfection her special style of

painting. Noteworthy is the absence of dark colours

and improved strong expressions. The paintings also

contain a dynamic movement and a large varitety of bright

colours.

Together with Jeni Caruana and (the late)Ebba von Fersen

Balzan, Olaug Vethal and other artists formed a small art

group which brought some Northern European influence to

the Arts in Malta.

Olaug Vethal with Norwegian relatives visiting her in Malta

Olaug Vethal took up various themes and styles. She loved

to catch the Maltese daily life on canvas and paper, tourists

at the beach,  traditional townfeasts (called festa in

Maltese), fishermen at work and various street scenes. She

also kept working on figurative paintings. Weekly painting

sessions often had the human figure as a subject and

sometimes models were enlisted from the local nudist

beach. Olaug might also be best known for her annual

appereance at the Malta Jazz festival from which

festival the Maltese jazz paintings originated.  Olaug

Vethal also worked as an illustrator, she contributed to

"Muzajk" and "Passju"  collections of poems by her close

friend Josette Baldaccino. Her largest and maybe greatest

work was her interpretation of the paintings of Caravaggio.

Another great success was the project "Seven women -

seven temples",  in which she participated with

other well known artists. Especially during the last years of

her life she had exhibitions in various places in Malta.

During her stay in Malta she blended more and more with

the Maltese society and the Maltese way of life. She easily

picked up the Maltese language and without seeking it she

became more and more assimilated. Being asked a month

before she died, if she still felt like a foreigner in Malta she

said:"Most Maltese will notice that I am from abroad but I

never focus on that. I just like being together with my

Maltese friends and family and it feels right."  

In 2004 Olaug Vethal was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

After a long battle she passed away on February 25th 2007

at the Sir Paul Boffa Hospital in Floriana. Hundreds of

people; friends, relatives, students, colleagues and

co-artists, attended her funeral at the St Gregorys

Cathedral in Sliema.