artists

Janette Hancock

Johanne Woods

Lennie Hirst

BJORN WIIK
This is strange. In writing this note about Bjorn, I realised that this makes two buddies I met in Norway who are (were, in the following artist's case) musicians turned artists. I don't know what it means, but it's an odd fact. Bjorn is a man after my own cut. And we had a whale of a time with him and his family. They live in Telemark (Heroes of, and all that.) As with Lello, we followed him into the hotel in Bo. (That Bo should have a line through the "o", but I can't do that on this keyboard. That's Bjorn, on the right, slightly the worse for a few pints of Tuborg, I think. It was his daughter Liv-Anne's wedding. Bjorn has a sort-of small-holding in Bo. More of a big-holding, really. It's the sort of place you would love to own. Picture postcard stuff, especially in the snow.
		This is the view from Bjorn's porch. Across the way is a farmhouse we once considered buying. Below is one of his paintings.

LELLO GRECO

Another musician turned artist. We, herself and I, first met him at a hotel in Norway. He was finishing his contract, we were starting ours. Lello's art was flourishing by then so he was at his own crossroads. An Italian, he was married to a Norwegian girl called Anna. We spent many pleasantly tanked and bloated evenings at Lello's pad. Being Italian, his meals never ended at the coffee. We would often roll back at the hotel at dawn. Never earlier, in fact! The reason for his success as an artist is legend, at least in Norway and Italy. A happy accident, he called it. He spilled mineral spirits on a canvas and tried to repair the damage with toilet paper! The result was an effect that people paid good money for. I painted a lot there, in his studio, with his materials. I think that period was my own turning-point. Lello died last year. We were devastated. One day I hope to place some of his work in these pages. Anna runs the gallery now and I send her canvasses from time to time.