Nikolai Astrup has some beautiful paintings on show at Dulwich just now. Colourful and magical evocations of life in the Norwegian countryside in the early 20th century. The love he shows for his landscape, people and customs is palpable, which makes the work he produced in his short life very special.

Astrup hardly moved from his place of birth, living in the same village or not far away, all his life. He documented the village, the village folk, the garden and the landscape he could see from his window. He was only 48 years old when he died and an early picture of his shows a village funeral. It would have been almost exactly the same as his own twenty years or so later.

You can see some more at the Dulwich Picture Gallery site. Another good web site to visit is here and The Guardian has a good write up. Better still, go to the exhibition.