Once again, I am flitting away for my usual Easter break in the peace of the Swedish landscape; savouring the calm of forest, the beauty of the lakes and seas! I’ll embrace the opportunity to unwind, relax … as nature soothes my soul.

Meanwhile, I’ll leave you with a series of posts to peruse. With no more calendars to hand, I’ve drawn inspiration from a book I found at my mother’s house. Called ‘Ett Hem’, here Carl Larsson documents the family home, its gardens and his family. I will feature paintings from the book, along with self-portraits of the artist, and these will be accompanied by, hopefully, uplifting and inspiring quotations.

One of Sweden’s iconic artists, famous for the paintings of his home, Carl Larsson sadly and ironically was raised in extreme poverty. As young his father threw him, his brother and mother out into the street and thereafter he was raised in a squalid building with three families per room. This wretched start to life ensured he sought to build a loving, colourful home for his family and with the help of his wife, Karin, also an artist and designer, they redecorated the house –  Lilla Hyttnäs in Sundborn, Dalarna – given to them by her father. Carl Larsson captured in watercolours the life here with his eight children and wife in the famous book ‘Ett Hem’ (‘A Home’) – a book which ensured he never needed to fear poverty again.

“A childhood without books – that would be no childhood. That would be like being shut out from the enchanted place where you can go and find the rarest kind of joy.” Astrid Lindgren

“Drink your tea slowly, and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world, earth, revolves – slowly, evenly, without rushing towards the future. Live the actual moment. Only this moment is life.” Thich Nhat Hanh

“For, so long as there are interesting books to read, it seems to me that neither I nor anyone else, for that matter, need be unhappy.” Selma Lagerlöf

“Where the spirit does not work with the hand there is no art.” Leonardo da Vinci

NB. Comments have been turned off for this and the next post but will be on for the final third post in the series.