'nature reserve' signs but this one seemed to end at a water treatment facility with no evidence of a nature reserve at all. This time however I could see from the main road a group of dog walkers walking in single file with their high visibility jackets walking along a path to the right of the treatment building6 so I turned the wheel, parked up the car then picked up their trail. An easy task in the snow and following in their footsteps I soon found a little wooden gate set in a fence that ran round a wooded area on a hill and within its boundary presumably lay the nature reserve. Now I know not on what basis this was a nature reserve, perhaps some rare flower grows there? That is the case in Bergby where a nearby wood is apparently one of the few places in Sweden to produce a particular type of wild flower, but whatever the reason it was indeed a charming area, made more so by the overnight snowfall that was weighing down the pine branches. 

I was sure to find numerous motifs so I doubled back to collect my necessaries and to my displeasure I discovered that I had forgotten the canvas. No canvas? Game over! I have a maximum of two and a half hours each morning to get to some Doing done and here I am with no duk7. As I began to accept that there would be no painting today I suddenly remembered a nearby multi purpose retail institution going by the name of the 'Dollar Store' which stock a kind of thin and brittle  pre stretched, (Gauguins Arles jute it is not).8  I got back in the car and put my foot down and was there in just five minutes but it took me ten additional to find the canvases as this store provides such an assault upon the senses to leave one reeling. They have everything under the sun piled high and wide creating a kind of cubed product maze that one must navigate to 'zissou' like electronic music9 piped in at uncomfortable volume. I eventually found the little art materials section and reached for a size twenty and made haste for the exit. I do not doubt for one moment that I made a spectacle as I walked torpedolike through the store like Don Logan,10 clutching my canvas and dressed in my painting clothes. I paid the young gentleman at the counter, who, I noticed as I inserted my pin,11 could barely contain his laughter and I got out of there. I positively lunged for the door so desperate had I become to escape and take a breath of icy winter air and as I indulged myself for a few intakes I thought of Joseph K emerging from the court offices12...what would he write now? Maybe the same thing?

Back to the reserve, along the path, through the gate and up the hill to a position which, to my great delight, afforded a wonderful view of a frozen lake. Surrounded on this side by deep ochre reeds and on the other by the icy perimeter; a really fine example. It was now clear why this spot deserved the accolade of a nature reserve. I walked on and only stopped to erect my easel where I did because I now had only ninety minutes work time. I could have explored the area all day it seemed, anyhow, a view of the frozen lake over the ochre reeds, a little house on the left and as you can imagine I lashed it on.

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Yours ,

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John

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PS I happened to be in Grisslehamn yesterday and noticed that they have started showing paintings by local artists on one wall above the domestic products. This is exactly the type of opportunity I would have taken last year when I went all out for sales but thanks to the DS I need not stoop.

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1 An expression in English describing a forward and back movement.

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2 John had originally planned a program of Bergby paintings for his Dignity Scholarship but due to the neccessity of taking his children to school in Norrtelje combined with increased visits to his elderly parents he now works in Norrtalje.

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3 John held a programme of solo exhibitions between April and September in an effort to increase sales.

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4 Refers to a Scottish expression which describes the preliminary stages of a fight between two individuals. One person 'squares up' to another to offer a fight. John's usage of the phrase to describe the position of the sun is unusual.

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5 Newcastle based artist that John met while at University. John is referring to David Foggo's famous collection of 366 VHS video copies of the movie Groundhog Day which he arranges and performs as a 'domino ralley'. (Objects placed standing virtically in such a way that when one topples into another a chain reaction is created that sees all objects fall. See Foggo's Groundhog Days.

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6 Lindholmens Reningsverk

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7 Here John is using the Swedish word for canvas.

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8 Gauguin purchased a distinctive and unusually rough roll of canvas in Arles from which both he and Van Gogh worked. 'Jute' is the French word for canvas.

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9 Possibly a reference to Steve Zissou, a character from the movie The Life Aquatic, a movie in which electronic music features prominently.

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10 Given John's habit of referencing movies it seems most likely that the 'Don Logan' John refers to is a character played by Ben Kingsley in the British Gangster movie Sexy Beast. The movie features a scene where Don Logan strides purposefully through an airport carrying a briefcase.

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11, Pin number

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12 Refers to Kafka's novel The Trial in which there are several instances where the character Joseph K remarks upon the unpleasant and claustrophobic atmosphere in the court offices.