The characters in Norwegian painter Ulf M's work are completely at home in their surreal environments. They have an apparent awe for the world around them and they inhabit the paintings as if inhabiting eternal dreamscapes. Influenced by eerie symbolist painter Edvard Munch and vocalist Edith Piaf, Ulf M has a penchant for intense colors and dramatic scenes. He often depicts quite moments, in which figures are meditatively alone or surrounded by intimate crowds. Yet the vibrancy of his colors and the attention Ulf M pays to lighting make intimacy seem glamorous. The folk tales and woodsy environments that defined Ulf M's childhood shape his work. His paintings have the epic quality of mythology and he often glorifies nature's attributes.