Lise Hopland Art & Illustration

“Come Swim With Me” is my version of Nøkken, who is a shapeshifting water spirit from Norway. He is said to be a dashing man, an incredibly beautiful white horse or even just a log floating in the water to name a few. What his original form is no-one really knows. What he wants however, is to lure you to his lake or river to drown you.

This is one of my pieces you can see at my exhibition at this summer!

When you are in a cabin up in the mountains somewhere in Norway during the summer chances are there’s clouds everywhere!

It’s rainy, and a little bit cold outside. So for breakfast I am having a pitch black coffee while starting this new book!

These two handsome bears are part of my hand printed linocut series that I have named “Kings And Queens”.

They are carved by hand and printed with black and gold oil inks on handmade lokta paper from Nepal. They also come on a more white Japanese printmaking paper.

These mini prints can be found at Villa Fridheim this summer. They are close ups of my big piece called “Skogen synger mens fjellet kaller»

I dag var åpningen for Villa Fridheim! Og dermed også min utstilling som skal stå i dette flotte museumet nå i sommer. Jeg føler meg utrolig heldig som har fått muligheten til å få stille ut kunstverkene mine her på Villa Fridheim.

Åpningsdagen har vært veldig fin, med forskjellige taler og kor som sang. Det har blitt gjort en kjempe jobb med renovering av kjelleren! Jeg anbefaler virkelig på det sterkeste å ta turen innom nå i sommer, bare husk å skjekk åpningstidene.

Jeg var alt for opptatt med dagen i dag til å ta bilder, men her er noen jeg tok under monteringen av utstillingen.

Tusen takk til alle som har vært med meg på denne reisen! Og en ekstra takk til familien min som hjalp meg med monteringen, og som overrasket meg med å være med på åpningsdagen i dag.

“In The Forest” one of my artworks that are hanging in Villa Fridheim this summer! 🥰 This is one of my personal favourites. If you are nearby, or even in the Oslo area with access to a car I would be so happy if you came to check out my exhibition! Remember to check the opening hours if you are planning a visit 😊
fairytale

Tomorrow we are leaving Bergen and heading towards ! Sunday is the opening day of the museum for the summer season, and it is also the opening of my exhibition there this summer! I am very excited for this opportunity, and I hope loads and loads of people will take the trip out there to this fantastic museum!
Anyone who loves a bit of history, fairy tales and folklore would just love this place.

Midsummer’s Night. Digital artwork available as an art print.

These three lovely nymphs will be displayed at my exhibition at which opens this coming Sunday at 13.00.

You can also find them at in Bergen

I don’t approve of meta training everyone’s content on AI against their wishes, I find it morally wrong. Even if I managed to opt out, I can’t say that I have much faith that they will uphold that.

I am not quite sure what I will do with social media in the future, but for now you can find me both here, on ko-fi and on Cara. I will try a breathe life into my newsletter this month as well.

Three very cute faux papercut drawings I made in procreate. I was having a lot of fun experimenting with this technique and I think I will play around with it some more throughout the summer.

“Dream” - How about letting this faun lull to sleep with their calming melody! Take you to magical places and experience all sorts of wonder!
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The artwork is now up on the wall!

Preparing the last details on my big piece for the exhibition.
I have named both the exhibition and this piece “Skogen Synger, mens Fjellet Kaller» which translates to “ The Forest Sings Whilst The Mountain Calls”. The title is representing the majesty of the nature surrounding us and where all the mystical creatures live and roam.
It also refers to my own feelings of being drawn towards both the forest and the mountains.

My exhibition is getting closer by the second! There is so much left to do still. But at the very least, the last of the linocut prints is finished and are now hanging up to dry.

It is going to be so cool seeing it all hanging up on the walls, and not scattered around my home and studio space.

‘Can’t you see them?’, she whispered. Her whole body trembling. They were always there, watching. She couldn’t always see them, but she knew they were always there. ‘See who?’, her friend whispered back worryingly.
Who are they? What are they doing? I have named them The guardians, but what or who are they guarding? What story would you give them?

Sketches and thumbnails for a new art piece. I enjoy doing this messy stage with pencils and on sh*tty paper. It’s not pretty, but it doesn’t need to be in order for me to figure out my starting point.
Nearly all of my artworks start this way. My linocuts, digital paintings, photos, ink washes, charcoals.

“Guardians” is one of the new pieces that I am bringing with me to next month!

This one gives me so much mystery when I look at it, there are so many stories that can be born from it. Who are these guardians? Who, or what are they guarding? Are they up to something?
I love art that inspires me to create stories or that makes me curious.

I am really looking forward to seeing it framed and hung up on the wall, and to share with you the whole piece and hear what stories that spring to your mind when looking at it!

Signing, framing and packing for the exhibition at this week. My home studio is a mess, actually… I think that if you ask my partner he would say the entire apartment is currently an exhibition mess! 😅

I am ignoring the mess as I am cleaning class, cutting paper, crossing the t’s while listening to the podcast Fabulous Folklore by which is just very much on theme with all of my projects at the moment. So I am loving it! Check it out if you haven’t already!

“Time and time again the awkward, two legged creatures from the world above had tried to capture her, or one of her kinds. It puzzled her; why would they keep trying to do something they were not capable of succeeding at? So she wondered what would happen if she tried to catch one of them instead?”
Digital illustration created in and
This will be one of the pieces for my upcoming exhibition at this summer!

It will be available in A2, A4 and A5 sizes. And like with all my art, this piece is limited edition.

I burned myself out yesterday. Luckily, I recently treated myself to some new books. I never got around to read a lot of Terry Pratchett. I kept being distracted by other books or I wasn’t in the mood. But right now some weird and some whimsy and this is perfect.
Do you got a favourite Pratchett book?

Spent all of today printing at the atelier. I had some weird things happening the first few hours, but then things started to go my way. I got nearly all of the different linocut motifs done for the exhibition! I have to wait for some of them to dry before I can finish them. In total there will be 8 brand new ones, 2 re-printed motifs and my linocut trolls as well.

I am preparing for my exhibition at It is getting closer and closer each day and I still have so much to do! However, it is really nice to see the pieces framed!
I am excited! Tired, but excited.

I was asked a question the other day: “When did your art journey start?” It is such a good question, and having made things all my life I really didn’t know what to answer at the time other than it being a gradual process. But it dawned on me a little later that the point where it all changed for me - when I stopped viewing my art as a hobby was when I did this collaboration project together with and . A children’s book that we wrote and illustrated together “Tales of Three”. We kickstarted this book back in 2016, and although our intention was to write a second book to finish the story it is unlikely we will.
I loved working on this project. It was so much fun, it was challenging and I learned a lot! I for sure would love to either finish the story or work on a similar project down the road.

For now though, I am happy to say that I only got 2 copies left that are up for grabs! They can be found at in Lille Øvregaten 12, in Bergen.

It was a beautifully sunny day today, and I got to spend some time here at Blekk. A really cool illustration and art shop in the heart of my city. The first visitor of the day was this gorgeous cat. He has the fluffiest tail I have seen in a long time! Though he was sad when he couldn’t pay for art with purrs and meaows.

Easter is right around the corner, and I made this for spring time, but it’s also very Eastery- don’t you think? It’s available in

Easter was my favourite holiday when I was a kid because we would go to my grandparents cabin which was even more out in the countryside than where I grew up. So I could run around in a different forest, I would go look for the hidden Easter Egg somewhere, but also.. spring was happening. So the weather was nicer and nature was coming back to life. There was adventure, mystery and riddles.

As a grown up, I still love Easter. Because Easter is a time where you read a bunch of murder mysteries or you watch an episode a day of a murder mystery (Agatha Christie is widely popular at this time), especially British murder mystery shows. Then you go out in nature and eat chocolate and oranges. What’s not to like?!

Zig-zug. This piece is going to be huge! And it’s also quite the challenge for me.

Working on a plan for the exhibition. I have a lot to get done, and not a lot of time left. Will touch base once I am less behind and less stressed.

The next royal animal has been carved. I carved this one more rough, and I am looking forward to seeing how it turns out.
I am going to carve all of them before I get to the actual printing.

I haven’t been posting loads on social media the last few months. I took a longer break than intended, but I am still here. I have had some health troubles the last 3 months, so my art has slowed down considerably. It’s not fun, but I hope I’ll get back to my usual pace soon.

In the meantime, I am happy to share my WIP linocuts. I have a handful of animals with Crowns that I am excited to carve and print! I think they will turn out beautiful, and I hope you will enjoy them as well.