‘Cat with Mackerel’, 1947. Oil on canvas. 64 x 39cms. Signed.
From a very young age, Folke found his life passion in painting and drawing. Both his parents loved artistic creativity and had many artist friends who visited frequently. Mondrian was an occasional visitor, being engaged to Folke’s Aunt Greta who was the model for “The Passion Flower”.
Folke received his formal artistic grounding at the Rijksakademie, in his first attempt to break free he followed the techniques of van Gogh. One lecturer, Heinrich Campendonk, suggested that Folke should paint outside, directly from nature, and inspired him with his descriptions of the far north and the Lofoten Islands. Folke travelled there in 1938, to Bönhamn, a fishing hamlet, where he produced many remarkable pictures and also met his future wife, Brita Horn.
Managing to return from Sicily, Folke spent the war years in Sweden. Restricted by the shortage of art materials, he experimented with different techniques.
With peace restored Folke painted continually for a decade, developing his own styles, much influenced by current French painting. Then came great success with very many major commissions for public and church buildings throughout Sweden, for sculpture, metalwork, textiles, stained glass, carving and murals of enormous variety. These works took up most of his remarkable creative powers during this time.
From 1968 he sought a return to the freedom of painting and found it in Holland, the land of his birth. This renewal produced many delightfully joyous and colourful paintings of every day scenes which found an enthusiastic and ready market.
