The White Falcon - 17.09.1971, Blaðsíða 4

The painting at left is the famous "Snaefells-
jokull," (glacier at Snaefellsnes), about which
Jules Verne wrote his book, Journey to the Center
of the Earth. This is one of the 30 water colors
ing of the famous salmon river, "Laxa in Thingey-
jarsysla," to Cdr. John Hyman.
Art exhibit here this weekend
SEE ICELAND IN WATER COLORS
Story & photos by JOSN Terry J. Carroll
How would you like to see some
of Iceland's beautiful scenery
within an hour?
Jakob V. Hafstein, an Icelan-
dic artist who specializes in
water color paintings of Iceland
in its natural mood, would like
to help you. In fact, he is be-
ing kind enough to feature 30 of
his paintings at an art exhibit
here this weekend.
The exhibit will be held in
the new high school auditorium
tomorrow and Sunday from 2 p.m.
until 8 p.m. Brochures, describ-
ing the titles of each of his
paintings,will be available. Al-
so, wives from the Officer's,
CPO's and 56 Clubs will act as
hostesses at the exhibition. The
30 water colors featured will be
available for purchase and every-
one is welcome.
Jakob is a lawyer, with a de-
gree from the Icelandic Universi-
ty and he also owns and manages
a printing shop in Reykjavik, but
as he says, "I am spending all of
my vacations painting and salmon
fishing."
The 56-year-old artist has
some warm and interesting philo-
sophies concerning life, art and
humanity:
"The best medicine I can take
when I am in a bad mood is to go
to my shop and break out my wa-
ter colors," because, as Jakob
puts it, "It is so important to
get in touch with lovely things
because there are already enough
bad things present."
Jakob Hafstein says that he
has been involved in art since he
was a child, and has completed
nearly 250 paintings, all of them
depicting the elegance of Icelan-
dic mountains, glaciers, falls
and streams.
Water colors are his favorite
media, "They are so clean and ef-
fective, and I believe are the
best media for my particular spe-
cialty." He continued, "Also I
believe that there are very few
artists using water colors, and
this is mainly because they are
so difficult to use<> Most people
think that they are useless and
temporary, but if the perfect ma-
terials are used, they can be
much more effective, and I think
even...more permanent than oils.
"I am trying to use water co-
lors to capture the natural as-
pect of Icelandic beauty, just as
we see it, with nothing added or
deleted, and I hope that the co-
lors I use are true, because I do
not want to give a false descrip-
tion of my homeland to anyone."
Because of the success of some
of Hafstein's late art exhibits,
it is apparent that water colors
are his best media, "At my last
exhibit I had 54 paintings, both
oils and water colors, and 42 of
them were purchased. This in-
cluded all of the water colors."
Jakob also told of his basic
method of painting, "When I'm
working on a painting, I have to
work very concentrated and fast
because when I get into a certain
mood I want to keep it until the
water color is completed."
The main reason Jakob uses
to explain his success with his
paintings is because he thinks
that an artist should stick with
the thing that he is most ac-
quainted with. "I know Iceland
to the bottom of my heart, and I
believe that I can more accurate-
ly depict its true beauty than
could a foreign artist, and vice
versa. Also, it should take me
quite a few years of living in a
foreign country to accurately
show its beauties with water co-
lors."
In parting, Jakob V. Hafstein
stated, "I believe that when one
is painting, he may just as well
practice the science of those who
bring sunshine into the lives of
others. Therefore, if I can de-
liver a beautiful picture of mm
country, I think that it wifl
bring sunshine into someone^B
life." ^
4
September 17, 1971