A few days ago, we were in Ribe, the oldest city in Denmark, and visited the very old cathedral in the main square. The mosaics, stained glass windows and frescoes inside the church were modern and quite different than the usual religious themes. They were colourful, bright, slightly fantasy like.
In Ribe we stayed at a B&B belonging to Kamma Franch, a very nice, but reserved lady. The room, kitchen and bathroom were in an old house on a small street right off the main pedestrian walk.
Today, after arriving in Herning, Murray and I go to the CHP Musuem, a permanent showing of art by Carl-Henning Pederson. He was one of Denmark’s leading artists. Birds played an integral part in his paintings he created.
We walk into one of the galleries and there is a large photo of an altar with mosaics and frescoes and I realized they are of the cathedral in Ribe. Then we see the mockups of the stained glass windows and those are also from Ribe. Cool! It looks like he did the artwork in the Cathedral.
We sit down to watch a short movie that talks about the work on the Cathedral and there is a lady on the screen talking about Pedersen, who stayed at her farm while working on the project. The lady is Kamma Franch, whose B&B we stayed in. WOW! She spoke very highly of the artist, who was about 70 at that time. She has one of his paintings, dedicated to her and her husband, in her living room.
We get a very funny feeling watching a video of one of Denmark’s famous artists and look up to see one of the integral characters in the video is someone we met on our journey a few days ago. It’s strange how the paths of life intertwine.