“In many ways I have returned to my childhood roots,” she tells Localfolk. Tine grew up in a house with three generations living under the same roof, and a grandfather that was proficient in many forms of artistry. “I used to spend hours in his atelier, just watching him work as he would paint, sculpt or in some other way create pieces of art.” Although she discovered a love for drawing at a young age, she never had a vision of herself as an artist. Yet, she started down that long path by choosing drawing as an elective subject in school. When entering high school in her hometown of Bergen, she was lucky to be included in an experimental setup that combined art subjects with traditional academic subjects like physics, chemistry, and maths. Here she explored her artistic side whilst at the same time building the base for her career as an architect. “I suppose I really owe a lot of my artistic abilities and interests to Jorunn and Steinar, two of the teachers at Krohnsminde VGS”, she says thoughtfully.
The path continued as she left home in Bergen at the age of 19 to study two years at Asker Kunstskole in Heggedal, just outside Oslo. “The thing I remember most from that time is how small a place it was,” she laughs, “we had literally nothing else to do than paint and create art.” At that stage she felt certain she would never end up as a painter. “I dabbled in all kinds of art”, she says, “sculpting, performance art, you name it…”
The path took her to places like New York and Italy before she landed in Singapore to study architecture. “I was an archetypal restless soul,’ she laughs, but in Singapore she must have found some peace, because she returned to Bergen after two years to complete her degree in architecture – and also met her husband and started a family, perhaps laying down her roots at last.
“I worked, and still do, as an interior architect, but found myself becoming very fascinated by painted portraits,” she tells, “the very naked and vulnerable nature of a portrait captivated me.” So, she decided to try to paint a bit herself. Perhaps was it always destined to go that way, perhaps her grandfather’s spirit returned to her once she had returned to Bergen, in any case she found enjoyment and peace of mind in painting. She was home again at last.
So, are there any painters she is inspired by, or feel connected to? “Some people say they see hints of van Gogh in my paintings, but I don’t really see that”, she says. Her grandfather loved Munch, but when pressed gently about it, she mentions Ryan Hewett, the South African painter as a source of inspiration. And, looking at her paintings, there it is undeniably a link to the work of Hewett, even if Tine has developed her own distinctive style. “I love getting feedback on my paintings,” she smiles, “everyone sees someone, but nobody sees the same person in my portraits,” she continues. There is, perhaps, a logical explanation to this. None of her portraits depict a specific person. Instead, she gathers inspiration from everywhere in her daily life, and builds images based on these. For instance, if she notices a person with some distinctive feature in a shop, she carries that memory with her, until it surfaces as part of a new portrait.
In her studio at home, she often works on several paintings at the same time. “My work process is a sort of a structured chaos,” she explains. She always starts by drawing the outline of the new portrait.
Then she sets it aside for a while, letting the idea brew in her mind until she is ready to complete it. “I get a lot of inspiration from the colour combinations I see in nature,” Tine says. She will try to recreate those colour combinations in her paintings playing with different combinations of light and shadows to create the dramatic effects, for which she has become known. As part of this process, she will carry the unfinished painting around in her house, to see it from different angles and in different light and shadows before she can finally be content that it is complete. “I just know when it is ready,” she exclaims.
Her journey has taken her from her grandfather’s atelier, through twists and turns, to her own studio at home in Bergen, and now she is excited to see where it may lead next. “I do have a kind of happy-go-lucky attitude about it all,” she laughs. Tine does not have a very structured plan for her career as such, but she is determined to explore all possible opportunities it may afford her.
Corona may have put a damper on 2020 on Tine Marie Traaholts plans but she is ready for 2021 and speaks enthusiastically about what she hopes to achieve. One main objective is to set up a pop-up exhibition in Bergen, where anyone can enjoy her work and see who they recognise.
