There is a an old tree in the forest behind my house that has captured my imagination.
It is a huge old oak an at its base is a hole that looks rather like a cave. Below the tree runs a small river and on sunny days it glistens and sparkles creating strange light affects that bounce up onto the tree.
The location of the tree is somewhat off the beaten track and thus is surrounded by overgrown bushes and grass.
The whole setting is quite magical and reminds me of something out of Lord of the Rings or something.
A few weeks ago I was standing watching the amazing light affects as the sun dancing though the forest canopy and I imagined the sight of the "Huldre" spirit resting withing the cave hole of the oak tree.
HULDRE
In Norway there is an old legend of the Huldre - female spirits that roam the forest and mountains.
They wait for a man whom they can seduce and then marry, for once they marry they become human.
There is an old farmer here in my village who said he once saw one of these Huldre Spirits when he was younger.
Of course he is pretty much ridiculed for saying this but still he sticks to his tale and so the legend lives on.
I decided to make a "sketch" painting that I might use for a larger painting.
I tried to capture the amazing colorful scene as though a magical neverland and the a Huldre spirit sits waiting in the tree cave. Waiting for a man to come along to capture his heart.
But perhaps his Huldre is not like the other Huldre spirits. She has a romantic soul and so waits not only for a man to come along to merely seduce, but for the "right" man.
She realizes that once she becomes human she must live with the man and thus she wants to love the man and for the man to love her in return. And when such a man comes along, after perhaps a millennium, she will come out of the tree cave and reveal herself. And then, and only then, will the tree also be allowed to fade away into natures history.
And so she waits, and she waits, and she waits...
I call the painting...True Love Waits
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