Lake Superior, known as Gitchigamie “the Great Sea” to the Ojibwe Native Americans living near it, is a huge and wild place. In this painting, under the vertical June light and the building clouds, I have tried to convey the presence of the numinous. Wild places offer integrity and authenticity; they possess a certain original and eternal perfection. “Nature is a greater and more perfect art,” wrote Thoreau.

This painting was fun to make because when it comes to creating verisimilitude in clouds I find that painting on canvas with fingers, child-like, works better that any other technique. Clouds are impossibly unpredictable—no one can keep up with their fleeting dynamism. Thus, if realism is the goal, as it is with me, I leave the sketchbook and imagination behind; it is the camera that gives me the tranquility to recollect their qualities.

Born on the edge of the bush in Saskatchewan, Canada, I’ve lived in many places across North America. I moved to Sweden in 2024. I met my wife here 20 years ago while searching for ancestral traces in Småland near where we now live. I studied anthropology (along with a little art) in Chicago, and archaeology at U of MN, then worked as an archaeologist and illustrator until 2012, after which I began painting professionally.

website: www.engseth.portfoliobox.net