Iceland Plein Air – 2022

During my residency in the north of Iceland this May, I was inspired to make a series of plein air landscape paintings after seeing the exhibition Eternal Recurrence at the Icelandic Art Center. The show was centered around an Icelandic landscape painter from the 1800s, Jóhannes Sveinsson Kjarval. Included in the exhibition were paintings from Ragnar Kjartansson’s performance of extreme landscape painting in the Icelandic lava fields. I created the series of paintings with the impulse to continue the conversation that these two artists started. But as I began working, it became more about developing a connection to the stark landscape in the north of Icleand, the urgency of working in such extreme weather conditions, and processing the grief from recently losing my father. In addition to the paintings, I collaborated with Danish filmmaker, Anna Katrine Thuesen, who was also at the residency, to document the painting sessions.