[1] Bernhard Dorotheus Folkestad was born in London, where his father assisted at the Norwegian Seamen's Mission in England.

After graduating at Drammen Latin School in 1896, he started as an apprentice in decoration discipline in Christiania (now Oslo) before he went to Copenhagen in 1902.

From 1903 to 1904, he was a pupil of the naturalist Laurits Tuxen at the Peder Severin Krøyer painting school.

Folkestad debuted in 1905 at the Autumn Exhibition in Oslo with a painting which was purchased for the National Gallery.

[3] His paintings Mørkeloftet from 1905, and Høns i høstsol and Grønnsaker from 1906 are all located in the National Gallery of Norway.