Björn Runquist
360 Degrees of Support: A Way Out and a Way Back
Oil on Canvas, 12″x16″
My painting depicts two schooners at dock. The schooners for me are a perfect symbol of 360 degrees of support For years schooners were built here, by the people who lived here. They were the vehicle by which a young person from here went off as a teenager. They were surrounded by a form of support – a crew, many of whom were perhaps family members or mentors, and they had the support of a family they left behind. They often went all the way around the world and they returned 4 or 5 years later as adults who gave back in many ways to their community. It was both a way out and a way back. Now there are many ways out and back and the road is open to both young men and young women. But the support is still needed and still there.
Surrounding the painting of the schooners are sections of text from the poem “Maine” by Lester M Hart which evokes the same idea.
Artist Bio
I was Born in Sweden and grew up outside of New York city in a small town on the Hudson River. As a child I studied with Swedish artist Nils Strom. My engagement with art continued from then. As a teenager we moved to France where I attended a French high school. Paris was a revelation. One could not walk twenty yards without seeing a wonderful statue or a beautifully composed building, monument or garden. I felt like I had come home. Aside from 4 years in London my adult life has been spent in New England where I have continued to paint for the last 40 years. The New England landscape has become part of who I am.
My career spans many styles, including abstract, mixed media, pastels, water color, etching and oil painting. I have work in the permanent collection of the Farnsworth Museum and have exhibited widely in galleries on the East Coast from Florida to Maine, including the Allan Stone Gallery in New York, the Connecticut Biennial at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, the Caldbeck Gallery and the Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockland. I am in many private and corporate collections and have had number of paintings in the State Department’s Arts in Embassies program. I am currently represented by Landing Gallery in Rockland, ME. and has been featured several times in Maine Home & Design magazine and most recently in Maine Boats Homes & Harbors .
