Art Chowder January | February, Issue 25 | Page 26

I
also enjoy learning about art and
artists on the internet.  And with one
daughter in Dallas and one in Seattle,
there are great museums to see, and from
which to find inspiration!  
Art Chowder:: Why do you sign your
paintings with a bear print?
L. Bjorneby: I guess I’ve known all my
life that Bjørn (the root of my surname)
means bear and I started signing with the
bear paw print because that sort of thing
was done around Kalispell. 
Charlie Russell, who painted up in
Glacier Park, signed with the bison skull. 
Ace Powell signed with an ace of hearts.
On a side note: the first gallery to sell my
work was the Ace Powell Gallery, where I
was represented for ten years.  
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ART CHOWDER MAGAZINE
Art Chowder: Who are some of the artists
that have inspired you or helped shape your
style?
 L. Bjorneby: I love to visit art museums
and appreciate all kinds of art that isn’t
my style, but find myself drawn to certain
artists’ work. 
I admire John Singer Sargent’s work,
especially his landscape paintings in
watercolor and oil.  His brushstrokes are so
fluid, loose but precisely where they need
to be. 
When I’m at the Met I stand for a long time
in front of Winslow Homer’s Maine marine
paintings.  Sargent and Homer weren’t
impressionists themselves, but were contemporaries of them and moved in the same
direction they did. That is, it was okay and even desirable to see the brushstrokes, and feel
the artist’s movements, as you looked at a painting.