Halden Quarterly

Issue 14 Autumn 2026

Interview Painting

Ines Vadell paints the minute before you look away

For thirty years the painter has worked from the same window above the river. We talked about patience, bad weather and the colour of waiting.

Interview by Theo Marchetti8 min read

You have painted the same view since 1994. Do you ever get bored of it?

Bored, never. Tired, often. The view is never the same view. In March the river is the colour of pewter, and by May it has turned to something like milk with a little green in it. People think a window is a frame. For me it is a clock.

So what are you actually looking for when you sit down to work?

Not the object. The object is easy, anyone can draw a boat. I wait for the change, the moment the weather decides something. Most days nothing happens, and I put the brushes back in the jar and make soup.

I don’t paint the river. I paint the light that leaves it, a second before anyone notices.

Ines Vadell Painter, in her studio above the river

Is that why the paintings take so long?

Some take a week, some take eleven years. I keep them leaning against the wall with their faces turned in, like children who are being punished. When I turn one around and it surprises me, it is finished.

What would you tell someone who wants to start?

Find one window and stay with it. Buy less paint than you think you need. And learn to enjoy the days when the light refuses to come, because those are most of the days.

This interview has been edited and condensed. New paintings by Ines Vadell are on view at Galeria Atlântico until February.