Norway inspired and Viking knots

I’m still enchanted by Viking-flavored knotwork. I dug around a little online and found out that these types of knots were commonly found on Norwegian Stave church portals and doorways and have a definite Romanesque skew.

Just to make it clear, I’m fascinated by historic architecture and ornament of any type, without any regard to its religious or political connections. My interest is purely in the aesthetic realm, focusing on shapes, colors and forms.

There are only a handful of these buildings still up, and they are for most part made entirely of wood. Here’s an example, the Urnes Stave Church (image sourced from Wikimedia Commons, permission to post by Creative Commons 2.0).

And look at the scenery behind it! Perhaps it’s my desire to travel and visit the great outdoors again, being so confined in the house due to pandemic. Oh well, we need to have patience.

I used the architectural design with its interesting angles to extract some strings, as you can see in the upper left side corner of this picture:

It is not my traditional style to work with such straight lines and rigid string, but I love experimenting with new things and this gave me a chance to work on something different. Here’s the before and after shading:

Obviously I started with the pattern that has been inspiring me, it’s a blend of Yah (Emily Classon) and Jaysix (Eni Oken) with a touch of romanesque Viking knotwork. Then I used the Art Raffle app to pull out a couple more tangles, and it produced Cadent and Verdigogh (both Zentangle), complemented with some simple stripes. SUPER fun very relaxing.

A class on this Faux Viking Knot technique will soon be available as a class for Art Club members on December 7, 2020.

Feel free to pin or share these pictures if you like.

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