Josephine Halvorson- by Morgan Haymer

Josephine Halvorson is an American painter and print maker based out of Massachusetts. Halvorson’s approach to her paintings are very unique in both style and choice of content.The content she chooses to paint may appear flat, mundane, and uninteresting at first glance, but a closer look demonstrates her good understanding of presenting these seemingly flat objects in a way that feels tangible and familiar through her use of shading and texture.

Halvorson was raised by her mother and father who were also artists that also ran a metal and blacksmithing shop, likely contributing to the rustic, almost industrial feel to some of her paintings.

Halvorson is known to paint her pieces on-site and in one session, which really helps solidify the idea that she captures these objects as she sees them, as they were physically in that moment. It is clear that time is a big factor for the inspiration of many of Halvorson’s works. The natural scuffs, scratches, burns, rusting, grungey textures created by Halvorson is a physical representation of time and establishes a relationship between the object/material and their deterioration throughout time.

Halvorson’s use of analogous color schemes also add a lot room for detail in the shading as well as showing the contrast of values. This allows for these paintings (which are often painted from a straight-on perspective) to feel three dimensional and physically tangible to the touch. This in turn puts all sorts of emotion into these objects/surfaces and what they may represent.

To me personally, this painting of these green barn doors gives me nostalgic flashbacks to my own childhood when I would roam my rural town seeing different barns with these types of patterns and grungy textures.