Tananger

Tananger (1998)

Charcoal or black pastel on paper
Sigurd Bergmann

In Tananger (1998), Sigurd Bergmann captures the textured calm of Norway’s western coast with his signature monochrome palette. Rendered in black pastel or charcoal, the landscape reveals itself in layers: a dense, brushy foreground, a soft dirt path winding upward, and a distant horizon lined with sparse winter trees and simple homes.

Above, three birds in flight break the vastness of the pale sky — a motif often used by Bergmann to emphasize movement and solitude. The tonal restraint here invites quiet looking; the eye moves slowly across the field, just as one might walk this path in real life, boots pressing into wet ground.

Though rooted in observation, Tananger feels more internal — an emotional terrain of memory, wind, and time.