98-year-old Deerfield painter celebrates the ordinary in his paintings

A car crash, a wedding, a death in the family, a newborn baby ...

Life has its ups and downs, but there are more times when things are just steady, mundane, ordinary.

While other painters may paint grand landscapes of mountains and waterfalls, 98-year-old Lars-Birger Sponberg of Deerfield chooses to celebrate the ordinary that others may see as boring.

His latest painting series titled, "The Significance of the Ordinary," features the landscapes of the Midwest as viewed from the roadside. These paintings show barns, grass fields, concrete pavements, blue skies, road signs, that Midwesterners know so well.

"I have a quote someplace that says something like 'We often think about special events, but forget the spaces that lie in between,'" Sponberg said. "I've tried in these paintings of the Midwest - the ordinary landscape - to call attention to the significance of the ordinary. The in-betweens of the celebrated places as well as the in-betweens of our lives."

Sponberg said these in-betweens are significant because they are the only constants in our lives.

"We measure almost everything by the ordinary," he said.

While these landscapes may look familiar, you can't actually see them in real life because they don't exist. In his latest series, Sponberg combines pictures of places he photographs and uses that as a basis for his paintings.

"My wife drives and I photograph," Sponberg said. "I combine two or three photographs or cut out a middle of a photograph rather than just copy a photograph."

Sponberg grew up in Sweden in a typical family - a father who was a shoemaker, a mother, three brothers and a sister. He remembers his parents telling him he started painting at the age of 4.

When he was 10, he won his first award, a 10-liter milk jug, for a connect-the-dots drawing.

Sponberg and his family immigrated to the U.S. when he was 12. When it was time for him to attend college, he went to the Art Institute of Chicago on a scholarship - something he is quite proud of.

There, Sponberg learned about the technicalities of art and painting. But more than anything, he learned about the importance of space from a teacher named Laura Van Pappelendam.

"Space is indefinitely more than just a lack of contact," he said. "Space has its own dimension and I try to portray that in the work that I do."

When World War II hit, Sponberg was sent to the army. Although he never served in battle, he kept busy by painting signs, posters, decorative paintings for the dining hall and creating illustrations for the army newspaper.

While he was stationed in Dallas, the USO and local church held a dance for the soldiers. That's where he met his wife, coincidentally enough, named Dallas.

Even though it happened more than 70 years ago, Dallas remembered it like it was yesterday.

"He was very, very blonde with blue-eyes and a very deep v-hairline which was kind of new to me. I've never seen anyone that I could remember so blond," she said.

Dallas said she often watches Sponberg paint while she cooks in the kitchen.

"I watch him and I watch the (paintings) develop and that's the wonderful part," she said. "He uses six colors to make all these colors which just fascinates me to this day."

Sponberg's paintings have been showcased in solo and group exhibitions in New York, Sweden and Chicago. He recently showed and sold art at the Geneva Art Fair, and he'll be at the 62nd Annual Art Fair on the Square in Lake Forest, Sept. 4-5, and the "One of a Kind" show held at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago, Dec. 1-4. But, what gives him real joy is when someone purchases one of his paintings.

"I feel like giving them a hug," Sponberg said.

Even though his age makes it harder to move around freely, he said he keeps on painting because he is a painter.

"Why do I paint? Why does an a writer write? Why does a composer compose? You must," he said. "If I don't paint, I'm not a painter."