2010 ! ! !

May each day of new year bring hapiness,
good cheer and sweet surprises.

Happy NEW YEAR

Peças de Altar / Altarpieces

Issue: Altarpieces

Values: 6.00 and 10.00 DKK

Issue: 16-IX-2009

Photos: Per á Hæd

Perforation: 13 × 2cm

Technique: Offset

Printer:

Growth, light and life

The church in Hattarvík (1899) and the church in Vestmanna (1895) have at least three things in common:

* The same man – P.C. Johannesen, Petur í Mattalág (1850-1922) – was in charge of the construction of both. He was also responsible for the construction of the church in Sumba (1886), the church in Skopun (1897) and the church in Kvívík (1903).
* Both of the churches have an altarpiece made by a Faroese artist in this century.
* Both altarpieces are singular in the Faroes where most altarpieces are oilpaintings.

The altarpiece in Hattarvík

Artist: Oggi Lamhauge, b.1971
“In Him was life”

The work consisting of twelve copperplates in a triptych framed by two equally tall prints is a graphic unit.

On the prints of the triptych are figures with spherical points depicting life: the crown of a tree, flowerbuds, live cells and, finally, human beings with their heads.
In the first group the lines travel upwards from below. They remind us of life and growth. By now life has begun.
In the centre group the opposites of light and colours are visible. In some of the prints the light travels in a circle, in others upwards from below.
In the third group the lines of the prints entangle themselves in one another. They delineate man’s coexistence with the light, with God. Macrocosm, the world that is so huge that we are very far from grasping it in its entirety, and microcosm, the infinitely small world of particles, draw our attention to the fact that there might be as far up to the largest as there is down into the smallest.
The spaces between the plates of the triptych form three crosses – the crosses of Golgotha.
The framing prints both depict life on Earth, the endlessly repeated circuit of life. The circles are open, and the lines penetrating them represent God’s lines of life.

Thus this work of art depicts the infinite cycle on Earth and God’s line of measured time.

The altarpiece in Vestmanna

Designed by Astrid Andreasen, b.1948, made by Katrin Andreasen, b.1971.
“Where the brightest light shines”
Very often altarpieces – in gloomy colours – depict the distressing Passion of Christ. But the altarpiece in the church in Vestmanna, the tree of life pictured from the crown down into the roots, calls to mind the famous grain of mustard seed that “becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it” (Marc 4, 32).

The large gilded cross (made of timber plated with pure gold, 24-carat) behind the tree betokens God Almighty.
The tree itself is made of the element aluminium and sprayed with car paint. On the bole of the tree are the colours brown, green and blue which represent earth, growth, heaven and sea. Residing in the tree and around it are snow-white enamel birds – human souls in the shape of doves. Their enchanting dancing movements bring to one’s mind light captivating music, the beauty in all of Creation – the bright side of life.

The church is the setting for all aspects of life, also those that are heart-breaking. If a person entering a church is greeted by a light altarpiece, this work of art is able to lift his spirit and thus render solace.

Both altarpieces touch on growth, light and life.

Marianna D. Dahl and Árni Dahl

Pombos / Pigeons

Issue: Pigeons

Values: 14.00 and 36.00 DKK

Issue: 16-IX-2009

Author: Astrid Andreasen

Perforation: 13 × 2cm

Technique: Offset

Printer: LM-Group, Canada

The rock pigeon (Columba livia)

The rock pigeon is a member of the Columbidae family which comprises about 300 species that live everywhere in the world apart from the Arctic and Antarctic.
Something like 10,000 years ago, the rock pigeon was one of the first birds domesticated by man and, from them, birds of all colourings and physical varieties have been bred over the years. Among the domesticated variety, the carrier pigeon in particular is most familiar, and who hasn’t seen the flocks of pigeons that infest bigger cities? The rock pigeon is the progenitor of these pigeons, and many birds among the multicoloured city flocks more or less resemble the feral rock pigeons.

In many places, domesticated pigeons interbreed with the feral variety and thereby constitute a major threat to the original populations of rock pigeons, which have disappeared from many countries for this reason. One of the world’s least interbred populations of rock pigeons lives in the Faroes. A few people keep domesticated pigeons, almost exclusively in Tórs-havn, whereas keeping domesticated pigeons is forbidden on the island of Nólsoy. The rock pigeon is approximately 32 cm. long, has a wingspan of approximately 65 cm. and can be found in two different colourings. In the Faroes, 80% of them have blue-grey backs and wings, while about 17% have more or less spotted backs and wings (chequered). The remainder have a few white feathers or are more or less black. The reason for this is not necessarily because of interbreeding with domesticated pigeons, but could be due to the fact that they either lack pigment (albinism) or, on the contrary, have too much pigment in their feathers (melanism). The rock pigeon is a sedentary bird and most of them stay in the same place they were hatched throughout their lives. Rock pigeons are often seen flying in small flocks of ten to twenty individuals outside the breeding season when searching for food. At night, they sleep in hollows and cracks between large rocks on steep mountain slopes, often close to the sea, where they also breed in the summer.

Formerly, corn was grown in the Faroes and rock pigeons could do great damage to a newly-sown corn field. The birds were timid and difficult to shoot, but people took their young, if they could get hold of them.

Today, the rock pigeon is a protected species. Many people keep geese, chickens and sheep and feed them outdoors throughout the winter, which provides rock pigeons with a good chance of survival, and the existing Faroese breeding population has been estimated as 1,250 pairs.

Reproduction
The first rock pigeons begin building fairly loosely-constructed nests of straw, roots, seaweed and feathers at the end of March. Both males and females take part in nest building and hatching eggs, although the females probably do most of the work. Nests are often built beneath big rocks, in hollows or in cracks on a rock face (puffins and rock pigeons often breed in the same areas). Some pairs breed individually while others breed together, and others again breed in colonies, as is the case on Nólsoy, where 30-40 pairs breed in a narrow cliff hollow a few metres above sea level, east of the village.

Rock pigeons lay two white eggs that they sit on for about 17 days, after which the blind, yellow-downed young hatch. The parent birds produce crop milk, a secretion produced in the lining of their crops that they feed the young on for the first few days. Subsequently, the young are fed the same food eaten by the adult birds for the next month or so, after which they can fend for themselves a few days after leaving their nests.

Rock pigeons usually have two broods during the course of a summer and the young birds themselves breed in the following summer.

A number of young pigeons die during the first winter, while those that survive will live for an average of three years. The oldest rock pigeon we know of, however, lived to be nine years old and was ring-marked on Nólsoy.

Jens-Kjeld Jensen

SEPAC 2009

Issue: SEPAC 2009

Values: 10.00 DKK

Issue: 16-IX-2009

Author: ÓlavurFrederiksen

Perforation: 13 × 2cm

Technique: Offset

Printer: Cartor, France

Um velho ditado diz que “os ilhéus Faroeses nascem com um remo nas mãos". Muito poucos outros lugares na terra são tão fortemente influenciados pelo mar. Nessas íngremes e rochosas ilhas bombardeada por ondas fortes no meio do Atlântico, é difícil encontrar um local em que o mar não pode ser visto ou sentido, mesmo com os olhos fechados. O rugido do mar e os gritos dos pássaros do mar pode ser ouvido até mesmo em clima tranquilo. O boom do surf é ensurdecedor durante as tempestades de inverno. Os sabores do ar são de sal e de algas.

Mesmo que as ilhas tenham sofrido uma evolução, no sentido de uma comunidade empresarial moderna, diferenciando o modo de vida durante os últimos cinquenta anos, o Faroês ainda vive do mar - a frota de pesca das Ilhas Faroé é o maior do mundo, medida pelo tamanho da população. A pesca de piscicultura e a navegação são as áreas económicas mais relevantes para as exportações.

Cada país tem suas próprias paisagens e em cada país as pessoas vivem e não só pensam que os filhos são os melhores, como também pensam que as suas paisagens são as mais bonitas do mundo. Será que as pessoas são marcadas pelas paisagens em que vivem? Muitos poemas e muita escrita foram dedicados a esta questão. Mas há, sem dúvida, algo nesta questão - é inevitável que quem cresce sobre estepes sem limites ou entre os arranha-céus das grandes cidades, irá ter o seu carácter influenciado, cada um à sua maneira. E o que faz às pessoas nascer e crescer em ilhas rochosas, cercadas pelo mar interminável? Ao contrário de muitas outras criaturas na terra, que se distinguem pela flexibilidade incrível - uma vida isolada em uma ilha rochosa certamente pode ser trocada por uma movimentada vida urbana dos continentes. Os Faroeses podem ser encontrados em todo o mundo, e não em grupos de imigrantes, mas individualmente, espalhados nos quatro cantos da terra. Costumamos dizer que "há sempre um Faroês próximo". A maioria deles fez-se chegar a esses destinos remotos como marinheiros, ir a terra, e encontrar uma nova vida. Esses nossos conterrâneos aparentemente conseguem prosperar nesses lugares, mas uma característica recorrente é que eles são, ocasionalmente, dominados por um desejo de retorno para passar a sua aposentação na casa da sua infância, nas ilhas. Em certo sentido, dificilmente pode haver qualquer dúvida de que as paisagens têm uma influência sobre as pessoas - em obras de arte! Retratar paisagens tornou-se um tema central artístico, especialmente após o movimento romântico - o último quartel do século 19 nas Ilhas Faroé - natureza e paisagens têm sido um tema predominante, em primeiro lugar na poesia moderna, que rompeu com o antigo épico, e posteriormente em artes visuais e música.

A natureza é está lá, assim que você pisar fora da porta, a paisagem é vertical, importuno, rica em estrutura, forma e cor. O mar e o céu têm mil faces e iluminações e temos de reconhecer o facto de que as poderosas impressões do sentido da natureza, na contemporaneidade da arte pictórica da vida, ainda fazem sentir a sua presença como um baixo contínuo, também nas pinturas abstratas e semi-abstrata que caracterizam a arte moderna.

Traduzido e adaptado do texto original de Bárður Jákupsson

(English version)

An old saying has it that ”Faroe islanders are born with an oar in their hands”. Very few other places on earth are so strongly influenced by the sea. On these steep, rocky islands pounded by heavy surf in the middle of the Atlantic, it is difficult to find a location from which the sea cannot be seen or felt, even with closed eyes. The roar of the great sea and the screaming of the sea birds can be heard even in calm weather. The booming of the surf is deafening during winter storms. The air tastes of salt and smells of seaweed.

Even though the islands have undergone a dramatic development towards a modern, differentiated business community during the past fifty years, the Faroese still live off the sea – the Faroese fishing fleet is the biggest in the world, measured by the size of the population, and fishing, fish breeding, and shipping in general account for most exports.

Each country has its own landscapes and in each country live people who not only think their children are the best, they also think their landscapes are the most beautiful in the world. Are people marked by the landscapes they live amongst? Many poems and a lot of writing have been devoted to this much debated question. But there must undoubtedly be something in it – it is unavoidable that growing up on boundless steppes or among the skyscrapers of big cities will influence people’s characters, each in its own way. And what does growing up on rocky islands surrounded by the endless sea do to people? Unlike many other creatures on earth, we are distinguished by incredible flexibility – a secluded life on a rocky island can certainly be exchanged for a busy urban life in the heterogeneous human sea of the continents. Faroese can be found all over the world, not in immigrant groups, but individually, spread throughout the four quarters of the earth. We customarily say that ”there is always a Faroese nearby”. Most of them arrive at these remote destinations as sailors, go ashore, and find a new life. Our countrymen apparently thrive in these places, but a recurring trait is that they are occasionally gripped by a longing for their childhood surroundings, they still call themselves Faroese, and some return to spend their retirement at home on the islands. In one sense, there can hardly be any doubt that landscapes have an influence on people – in works of art! Since landscapes became a central artistic theme, especially after the romantic movement – the last quarter of the 19th century in the Faroes – nature and landscapes have been a predominant motif, first in modern poetry, which broke with the ancient epic lays, and later in pictorial art and music.

Nature is there as soon as you step outside the door, the landscape is vertical, importunate, rich in structure, form and colour. The sea and the sky have a thousand faces and illuminations and we must recognise the fact that the powerful sense impressions from nature in contemporary, living pictorial art still make their presence felt like a figured bass, also in the abstract and semi-abstract paintings that characterise modern art.

Bárður Jákupsson

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2010

Peace, Health and Joy are my best wishes to all my readers and their families and friends.

Christmas Seals 2009

Canção tradicional Faroesa de Natal Eu sou o Pai Natal

Eu sou o Pai Natal,
minha barba é espessa e cinza.
Meu casaco de algodão e calças são negros,
Eu moro na colina dos elfos.

Natal se aproxima,
Eu prefiro ficar aqui,
Agora é o momento de brincar e de alegria,
porque o Natal se aproxima.

Quando chegamos ao mês do Advento,
e o Natal se aproxima,
Eu só penso em presentes de Natal
para as meninas e meninos das Faroés.

Eu sei que eles estão olhando para a frente,
nas vilas e cidades,
Há um monte de presentes,
porque ninguém quer o mesmo.

É por isso que começar cedo
para recolher os brinquedos,
bonito de ver,
alegra os corações das crianças.

Aqui estão as bonecas e casas de bonecas,
cavalos, carros e barcos,
um avião pequeno bonito
e um monte de soldadinhos de chumbo.

Há patos e gansos e galinhas,
lam e ovinos e bovinos,

que canta, quando se gira.

Aqui estão todos os tipos de animais,
aves e peixes pequenos,
o cachorro cutest little
e um gatinho.

Aqui estão as fitas de seda mais justa,
amarelo, vermelho e azul,
broches, alfinetes e anéis,
e os lotes de relógios minúsculos.

Há flautas e instrumentos,
todas elas som muito bom;
mas nada bate a beleza
da boneca chorando.

Tudo que uma criança poderia desejar,
No Doubt - I have it all.
Agora é só trazer a Natal,
meu saco está cheio e cheio.
Letra: Marius Johannesen
Música: H. J. Højgaard (English version) I am Father Christmas

I am Father Christmas,
my beard is thick and grey.
My cotton coat and pants are black,
I dwell in the hill of elves.

Christmas is drawing near,
I prefer to stay right here,
now is the time for play and joy,
because Christmas is drawing near.

When we reach the Advent month,
and Christmas is drawing near,
I only think of Christmas gifts
for Faroese girls and boys.

I know they’re looking forward to it,
in villages and towns,
there are a lot of presents,
because nobody wants the same.

That’s why I start early
to collect the toys,
beautiful to watch,
gladdens childrens hearts.

Here are dolls and dolls’ houses,
horses, cars and boats,
a beautiful little airplane
and lots of tin soldiers.

There are ducks and geese and fowls,
sheep and lam and cattle,

which sings when it whirls.

Here are all kind of animals,
birds and tiny fish,
the cutest little puppy
and a little kitten.

Here are the fairest silk ribbons,
yellow, red and blue,
brooches, pins and rings,
and lots of tiny watches.

There are flutes and instruments,
they all sound very good;
but nothing beats the beauty
of the crying doll.

Everything a child could wish for,
no doubt - I have it all.
Now just bring on Christmas,
my bag is stuffed and full.

Lyrics: Marius Johannesen
Tune: H. J. Højgaard