Monday, November 5, 2007

A present for Santa Claus

A funny little story that I meant to publish last week.

I was at the exhibition of a Norwegian artist Tor-Gunnar Riise who lives within the Norwegian Arctic Circle and was amazed when Tor had a surprise guest with him...

None other than Santa Claus himself!!

It turns out Santa has a holiday home here on the Costa Blanca. After we had chatted for a while I told Santa that I wanted to give him a present to say thank you for all the presents he had given me over the years. I gave him one of my limited edition prints and he was really touched by the gesture. He told me he would hang it in his workshop to remember me by. Although the photograph attached isn't the 'actual' Santa Claus, I thought it would represent his joy at receiving my gift!

Tor's exhibition was of subtle colourful scenes from the Arctic Circle including paintings of the Northern Lights over mountain tops. Beautiful work. You could feel the shivers running up your spine in his representations even though it was twenty degrees outside. Apparently spring, when it eventually comes, only lasts a week before their short summer takes over. Tor's other paintings described the dramatic changes between the seasons in what must be a barren landscape for much of the year. I wouldn't mind seeing that sometime. I'm not sure I could handle the six months of complete darkness though.

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