If art historians are correct many Nordic painters consider the Swedish summer’s colours boring and not paintable. Painters have described it as “an all green spinach”, and have travelled south to the countries around the Mediterranean to find views where red earth colours contrast a more sparse greenery.

But it must be possible to express the Swedish summer without putting red houses or maypoles into a painting. A first step is to investigate all those green nuances we have around us. I took a packed lunch and painting materials with me out into the wood to mix green colours.

It is well known that blues and yellows together makes greens – but which blue with which yellow? I have many tubes of both. No mix of blues and yellows made the right nuance for blueberry leaves that are not directly in the sun. I had to put red or brown earth colours into the greens to get good results. I would never have learnt this only by reasoning. 

You see the landscape and the result here.