Bjørn Rune Lie is a Norwegian illustrator based in Fife, Scotland. Since graduating from Falmouth College of Arts in 2001, he has developed a distinctive visual language shaped by experimentation, humour, and texture. His work combines the boldness of folk and outsider art with influences from film noir, creating art that feels playful, strange, and full of warmth and beauty. Alongside an extensive range of international commissions, Bjørn continues to create personal artworks and books. He has written and illustrated three children’s books and contributed to several others. The pull of Norwegian nature often finds its way into his imagery, most notably in his acclaimed picture book Slapsefjell (Magikon forlag, 2008), which has been translated into multiple languages. His clients include The New York Times, The New Yorker, Deus Ex Machina, Hiut Denim, The Green Man Festival, Kistefos-Museet and V&A Dundee....
Rhinestone Flower by Bjorn Lie
1. Hei Bjørn, can you tell us a bit about yourself, who you are, what you do, and what kind of work you love to make?
Ok... I've been an illustrator for 25 years. I started out in Oslo, then moved to Bristol, England, where I lived for 16 years. I'm now living and working in a small fishing village in the east of Scotland. My studio is a converted net loft (where fishermen would store sails and nets) above my kitchen...I love it. My life is very simple these days, dominated by work (never enough time....), school runs, the odd swim in the North Sea and playing football with my kids...
Fisherman's Cottage by Bjorn Lie
The last couple of years I've been focusing less on commissions and more on personal work, making a lot of what I call "flower studies". Based on botanical art, they are small experimental pieces where I try to explore mark-making within a set of boundaries.
I love making work that surprises me somehow...That has a feeling of unpredictability and a happy accident, but is also graphically strong.
Fluorescent Flower by Bjorn Lie
2. In an interview, you mentioned that you started out doing graffiti as a teenager, and that experience still influences your love of bold, poppy imagery today. How did those early experiments with colour, texture, and scale influence the way you approach illustration now?
Ha. yes. Graffiti was my introduction to art. Drawing was always something I loved doing, but it was a rather solitary hobby. After getting into rap music and discovering hip hop, however, I started experimenting with writing my own letters. (My first name was "Warp"). I made a bunch of new friends, and slowly realised that my drawing skills could be a way to carve out an identity. I should mention that I grew up in the middle of a pine forest in Norway...And that the fruits of my labour would be enjoyed mainly by runners and cross-country skiers....We're not talking the Bronx here...
Leaving Town by Bjorn Lie
What I loved about graffiti, (we're talking pre-"street art". Graffiti was not meant to communicate with the uninitiated back then) was the visceral reaction I got from it. It would hit me like a punch in the stomach! It's not about anything intellectual; it is not trying to communicate anything. It's purely its own thing. Music for the eyes, if you will.. If there's any trace of graf left in my work nowadays, it's that I think...The attempt to emulate the feeling I got when I saw a "Mack" piece along the Akerselva river in Oslo for the first time. Pow!
Aggregate Flower (2) by Bjorn Lie
3. You’ve said you’re often drawn to folk art and the natural landscapes of Norway. As a Norwegian living overseas, how has your relationship to these motifs changed over time?
Yes, I love painting trees and forests. When coming home for the holidays after moving to the UK, I would be amazed at the beauty and vastness of the forests I had simply taken for granted growing up. Suddenly, I could see it all with fresh eyes.
Trees started entering my work in various projects, and finding new ways to stylize them became a bit of a mission. I'm exploring different avenues of inspiration nowadays. I found my new surroundings in Scotland really inspiring when I first moved here, and I set about trying to find ways to simplify and stylize the local architecture; crumbling net lofts, stone walls, crow stepped gables... Ironically, there is a real lack of trees here, though, because of the shipbuilding industry over the years. I still do a lot of work for Norwegian clients tho, so I often get a chance to incorporate some "funky trees".
Trees started entering my work in various projects, and finding new ways to stylize them became a bit of a mission. I'm exploring different avenues of inspiration nowadays. I found my new surroundings in Scotland really inspiring when I first moved here, and I set about trying to find ways to simplify and stylize the local architecture; crumbling net lofts, stone walls, crow stepped gables... Ironically, there is a real lack of trees here, though, because of the shipbuilding industry over the years. I still do a lot of work for Norwegian clients tho, so I often get a chance to incorporate some "funky trees".
Garden Wall by Bjorn Lie
4. You’ve been exploring botanical imagery for a long time now. What keeps you coming back to plants as a source of inspiration?
Yes, it somehow coincided with my wife starting to study horticulture and going to a lot of National Trust gardens and stuff. To be honest, it was more the aesthetic of those old scientific illustrations that inspired me the most...rather than the subject matter itself. (My wife would scoff at this statement.) But the flower as a subject does offer me an opportunity to experiment wildly with curious shapes, patterns, and various forms of mark-making.
Nature is so strange, however, that I've had to develop some rules and limitations... (I don't allow "spiral" shapes, for example. I had to draw some Sundew plants for a commission recently, but they are so alien that they actually look AI-generated!) But I've developed a certain internal logic that allows me to incorporate all sorts of things into the mix; funghi, coral, sea urchins, seed heads, things I find on the beach and in magazines...Anything inspiring I come across can be incorporated...And because plants don't have faces, I find it easier to escape the stylistic trappings of the illustrator within....which I'm striving to avoid in my "fine art" work.
Nature is so strange, however, that I've had to develop some rules and limitations... (I don't allow "spiral" shapes, for example. I had to draw some Sundew plants for a commission recently, but they are so alien that they actually look AI-generated!) But I've developed a certain internal logic that allows me to incorporate all sorts of things into the mix; funghi, coral, sea urchins, seed heads, things I find on the beach and in magazines...Anything inspiring I come across can be incorporated...And because plants don't have faces, I find it easier to escape the stylistic trappings of the illustrator within....which I'm striving to avoid in my "fine art" work.
Narcissistic Flower by Bjorn Lie
5. You’ve developed some really unique techniques over the years, from your “stencil marbling” method to using soft, ground pastels and sponges for your botanical work. How did those approaches evolve, and what do you enjoy about inventing your own processes?
When I started out, I was lucky to share a studio with some of the best illustrators in Oslo. One of them was the picture book maker Øyvind Torseter, who was always experimenting with strange processes and mark-making. I saw him using pastels and rollers, and it just looked really fun. Years later, I was given a set of pastels, and I decided to test this out for myself using airbrush film to make stencils, like I'd seen him do. I immediately fell in love with the process, because the result was unpredictable and wonky, yet razor sharp in a "folk arty" sort of way. And it took away the fear of the empty page. Soon, I realised that I could emulate the feel of Ernst Haeckel's lithographic prints using this technique, and it sort of grew from there.
Preview of Bjorn's Process
It's the element of surprise I yearn for, so I love it when I suddenly discover a new method to incorporate. Little "hacks". Like dipping a chunk of red cabbage in some ink and printing with it...or painting ink patterns on a party balloon and pressing it through a stencil. Fluospraypaint on water gave some unexpected results, but proved too hard to control...The other day, I attached a sponge on a stick to my drill and dipped it in ink (the sponge, not the drill) ! And the results were great...I see my studio as a laboratory and myself as a mad scientist...
It's the opposite of just buying a "texture pack" for the iPad....I see the appeal, but it's not for me.
Restless Flower by Bjorn Lie
6. You've talked about some quite unconventional techniques in your work. Do you seek those out deliberately, or does experimentation enter your process over time?
I have a natural inclination to over-work and tie up loose ends...(I could never do abstract work), so I have to consciously make an effort to try to loosen up. When I draw, I find that my hand automatically follows these well-trodden stylistic pathways, and I quite often don't like it very much... So I need to artificially create some distance between my hand and the artwork. Like using bad brushes for examples, or making a gloopy ink out of pastel dust and floor varnish...Or these other weird techniques mentioned earlier....
Preview of Bjorn's Process
7. You created a mural for the Paper Paradise workshop at the V&A Dundee, which looked incredible. How did that collaboration come about, and what was the concept and process behind bringing the piece to life?
I was very excited when they got in touch, because I love V&A Dundee. It's one of my favourite buildings, and it's doing wonders for the city. It's very seldom I get to work for local clients, let alone for the actual public... It was a bit scary at first because I really had no idea how to approach it. It was a big wall, and I'd never tried scaling up my work before. Although I love to experiment, the prospect of such a public failure was a bit daunting...
After some tests tho, I figured out a way to do it using emulsion paint, big stencils, and spray paint. But less than a week before install day, I was told that spray paint was a big NO, as the fumes might activate the fire alarms. And as the museum was open to the public, disabling them was not an option...So they sent me an airbrush kit, which I had to teach myself how to use in a matter of days. I'd never tried it before, and I was very nervous to do such a big piece as a first attempt...It felt like such a slow medium compared to the immediacy of a spray can, but in the end, I got into it and really enjoyed it. It took way longer than planned, but I was happy with it in the end.
Paper Paradise at the V&A Dundee by Bjorn Lie
8. Commercially and artistically, you’ve had huge success. Is there a dream collaboration or project still on your bucket list, something you’d love to take on next?
I've been lucky to have worked with some great brands, but I really don't feel particularly successful. I'm a terrible businessman and often spend far too long on projects that don't pay enough. My dream is to have a financially viable fine art practice that could allow me to try new things (AND fail) without imminent risk of running out of money. I've always sailed close to the wind in that regard, and it does take its toll, I must admit. But there are still so many things I want to try out; Lithography, woodcuts, 3D objects...When I'm an old man, I'm planning on painting landscapes in oil. I live by the sea, and the light/sky here in Fife is incredibly beautiful. But this year, I just want to try and scale up my work...Get going with the airbrush again.
Pittenweem Shed by Bjorn Lie
9. Finally, is there a book (art-related or otherwise!) that’s had a lasting impact on you or your creative process?
Art Forms in Nature by Ernst Haeckel is the art book that has probably had the biggest direct influence on my work, at least on the botanical-inspired stuff. It's what kickstarted that whole side of my practice...Another one was a book on the Norwegian artist Leonard Rickhard (who sadly passed away last year) that I bought after seeing his solo show in Oslo back in 2001: Soft Whispers in the Birch Wood. Rickard was a phenomenal painter, creating these incredible landscapes and interior paintings, with motifs that keep recurring in ever new ways. (Industrial debris, rusty farm equipment, army barracks, birch trees, technical drawings). His frames are an integral part of the artworks, and sometimes the motifs spill over onto them. His compositions are strong and graphic, his colours are bright and poppy, yet they have this strange and unsettling feeling, this undercurrent of something dark and mysterious... I find that super inspiring, and I guess there are some traces of that in my own work...
I'm not a great reader, but Prophet Song by Paul Lynch has stayed with me. It's set in a fictitious Ireland that has slid into authoritarianism....Feels scarily relevant, and it is so beautifully written...
Parasites by Bjorn Lie
Parasites by Bjorn Lie
