laugarvatn

Two weeks in November 2023 at Gullkistan Artist Residency

The music that accompanies the increasing night and the decreasing day
of my sitting and painting meditation behind the window front at Gullkistan residency,
while eruptive movements of magma under the surface of the earth
on the Reykjanes peninsula around Grindavík are taking place – – –

Ólafur Arnalds: Island Songs (2016)
Kjartan Sveinsson: The Last Farm (2020) & Volcano (2020)

As an introduction

I arrived in Reykjavik on a day when the magma around Grindavík was very active and the population of the village had just been evacuated. The uncertainty about my flight and arrival until we actually landed let me feel the clear air even more intensely when I stepped out of the plane in Keflavík.

The upcoming weeks are going to be my second attempt to be for a longer time in Iceland. I am at the beginning of new direction to take, a time of sensing, of letting go, of inviting the next movement – a sabbatical time of a few weeks. I came in my favorite season, in winter, the time of the long dark nights, of reducing light that allows imagination.

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The days in Reykjavík were filled with a kind of abundance, a lot of pre-Christmas cosiness and human encounters of different kinds, but also a sense of density accompanied me this time, and a longing to get to nature…

Three days after my arrival I was on the ride through the powerful area of Þingvellir on the way to Laugarvatn, and it reminded me of my very first journey here eight years ago.

Day by day I take in the view on the lake. My perception of time changed and while days seem to melt into one, Iceland reveal’s her most beautiful November light – gentle, announcing its soon decease.