As a child I was commonly interested in all forms of handicrafts like woodcarving, drawing and reading. Living on a farm in the woodland with family members interested in hunting, fishing and outdoor life was easy to develop a love for the nature and its creatures. With this in mind it’s easy to see why wildlife subjects were the first inspiration source, and still are for me. I have early memories when I was about four- five years old, sitting in my grandmother’s kitchen drawing birds on cover paper.
Kyösti Turtiainen, my uncle who was part-time artist early discovered my interest. He provided me with the right material and taught me the basic technique. He constantly encouraged me to draw and paint.
I think this and my little manic interest meant that my artistic skills developed quickly.
During these first years my writing was a constant repetition of certain motives. I was quite targeted already as 8-10 years old. At this time, I was inspired by the Swedish artists Harald Wiberg, Bruno Liljefors and Gunnar Brusewits. I participated in my first group exhibition at the age of thirteen in 1983. My art teacher at high school, Jean Wilton also invited me to exhibit together with him. I spent two years at art school with a broad focus on drawing painting, sculpture and art history.
I was born in the southern forest highland in Småland, Sweden with a diversity of dense forests, many lakes, creeks and small-scale agriculture landscape. Now I live with my family in Viken north of Helsingborg on the southwest coast, close to very good habitats for shorebirds on the migrating route for lots of Arctic birds.
I also find it inspiring to make more finished piece in plain air. The most common techniques for my field studies are pencil and watercolor, sometimes also oil painting in smaller sizes. I take a lot of reference photos besides my sketch work. With my way to paint I’m not in need of perfect images, just something to support the process.
The camera is also perfect to remember complicated bird plumages with.
I enjoy painting in both oil and watercolor. In watercolor I paint very small pieces, and up to 40 cm x 60 cm. I tend to paint oil in larger sizes (up to 2 meters) and lately I have made a series of very small plain air painting up to 7cm x 9 cm. From the beginning my idea was to finish one in twenty minutes but I have had to reconsider that into at least one hour.
I think it would be useful for every oil painter to do a watercolor now and then. Watercolor is very much a one-way conversation; as an artist you have to be completely sure what you want to do before you put the brush to the paper. Otherwise you can get some unwanted surprises.
Oil painting is more of a two-way conversation. You can put a color on the canvas, stand back and see how it works, add more, maybe manipulate it and so on. One step forward and one step back, like a conversation with the canvas. I like to paint quite bold streaks at the beginning and add details and highlights at the end.
Sketching and drawing is the mother of all artistic work if there are any anatomy involved.
My favorite subjects tend to vary over time. In the beginning it was garden birds, Capercaillies, Black grouse, Moose and Roe deer; animals which were close around the area in which I grew up. Later it’s been landscapes and seascapes, birds of prey, different kind of shorebirds and lately the megafauna from Africa. Though it seems like some are going to follow me for lifetime -Capercaillies, Loons, Eiders, Elephants, Zebras and the big cats.
I have a small studio where I show new paintings, and recent field sketches, open for public by appointment. My representative galleries are: Art Gallery Vättern, Motala Sweden; The Wykeham Gallery, Stockbridge, United Kingdom; Kneeland Gallery, Ketchum Idaho, USA; and Turner Fine Art, Jackson hole, Wyoming, USA.
My paintings have been juried into Birds in Art, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, Wisconsin, USA eight times. Two paintings have been purchased to the permanent collection of Woodson Art Museum “The sun breaks through”; a 30×42” Watercolor from 2013 and “Frozen”; a 24 x 39 oil painting from 2015. Also, the Museum has several drawings, field sketches, composition sketches and watercolor studies in their permanent collection. I was delighted to have my painting “Balance” selected for the 2019” Birds in Art” exhibition. It’s always a thrill to have a piece accepted for this exhibition. BiA are considered to be the top notch show for artists with birds as a subject.
My personal favorite is a watercolor depicting a group of sleeping avocets balancing on one leg, and one laying down about to wake up. The size is quite big: 66 cm x 102 cm.
This year I decided to go to the opening weekend in Wausau, I have not been there since 2016, and you must take the chance when you are in the show. Around seventy artists from all over world gathering…A chance to meet old friends from far away and make new ones.
The opening festivities consists of an artist’s luncheon, artist preview, a VIP reception and dinner on Friday. Saturday starts with the public opening, artists in action, with some of the attending artists demonstrates their techniques. This year’s Master Wildlife Artist was a friend from England, a pencil artist known as Alan Woollett who held his Master talk in front of a big audience.
My paintings have been exhibited in several art exhibitions and galleries in the United States, and of course here in Sweden.
I have been included in The Western Visions Miniatures and Wild 100 at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, Wyoming. 2011-14 I am always looking for inspirations for new ecosystems and habits to visit. In 2018, I participated in a wildlife art safari to Kenya together with an artist friend Peter Elfman and my middle son Kristoffer. The goal was to find inspiration for new art, complete fieldwork such as sketching, watercolor painting, and to take reference photos. To improve sketching scenes, we had empty sketchbooks with watercolor paper ready to make a journal for the trip.
We landed in Nairobi and made the surroundings
for one day before we headed north to Samburu and Buffalo springs; some
wonderful days in this dry bushy park, including some species here that you
don’t find in the southern part of Kenya. This includes the Reticulated Giraffe,
Beisa Oryx and some birds like Vulturine Guineafowl and Donaldson- Smith’s
Sparrow weaver.
Then we went over the highlands down to Lake Naivasha for birdwatching and a boat
trip. Our destination was the more open space in Masai Mara.
We spent the rest of our Safari here with the big cats and parts of the great migration.
Game drives during the daytime and painting in the evening and through the
nights. Busy days that gave endless inspiration…
In February-March 2019, I had solo show titled” The Wild Wonder” at Turner Fine
Art in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. This was my first solo show in the United States.
We decided to let the exhibition consist of only watercolors, and the subject was
Birds and animals from the US along with my normal Swedish bird paintings.
Kathryn Turner, a co-owner of Turner Fine Arts and also a wildlife artist, said,”
Gunnar Tryggmo is a master of his craft, exhibiting a level reached only
through a commitment of time and passion. In his native Sweden, Tryggmo is
highly revered for his watercolor paintings that follow in the country’s rich tradition
of the medium.
“Traditional watercolor is a very challenging medium because of its
unpredictable nature and transparency— it is not possible to undo a misstep,”
said gallery owner Kathryn Mapes Turner. “This is why Gunnar’s commitment to painting
in this medium is so impressive. The results of his commitment are pieces that are
both bold and sensitive, painstakingly rendered with a distinctive lightness of
touch and spontaneity.”
In 2020, my wildlife art will be exhibited at the Turner Gallery show “A Touch of
Nature” featuring 23 watercolor paintings from the Western United States and East
Africa.