The Waterspirit Painting

A New Old Master

The painter Jonny Andvik (1966 - ) is one of the foremost figurative painters of his generation in Scandinavia. Born in Porsgrunn, Telemark, Andvik studied at the School of Graphic Design, Lille Ulefos from 1984-86 and at the Exeter College of Art & Design (England) four years later. He also studied the work of the old masters and, as a young man, painted in the studio of Odd Nerdrum.

The Painter and His Work

Jonny Andvik's personal and artistic horizons have unfolded expansively since his childhood living in a farmers district in Telemark, Norway. That period of geographical isolation was in retrospect a blessing for the painter he recalls. "Because I grew up in a close connection to the cultural heritage of Telemark, I wasn't taught the cliches. My experience of the local people, there minds and there way of living shows in my paintings."

Born in 1966, he was unusually fortunate to be encouraged by his grandfather Alf Andvik in the pursuits of painting, himself a painter, donated his twelve-year-old grandson his first brush and paint.

Andvik's interest in drawing and painting continued as a teenager and he was further encouraged as a student both in Norway and at the Exeter college of Art in England. A frequent visitor to museums, he is inspired by painters such as Titian, Jan Vermeer, Rembrandt, John Singer Sargent, Anders Zorn, Andrew Wyeth, Odd Nerdrum and several other masters.