remembering & rendering that June 28, 2017 day

remembering

The day was June 28, 2017  a day that began so wrong turned out to be so right!  

When I was truly getting into this artistic thing, I began to wonder, would I some day be capable of painting a scene or two from my ten days spent in Iceland.  These past couple of weeks, I looked back at my photo albums and read my blog posts.  Oh my, I got lost in my thoughts remembering those absolutely wonderful incredible days.  Waterfalls, glaciers & geysers, wild & colourful landscapes, ocean & lagoon vistas, lupins galore, there were so many options to choose from to paint yet all my photographs looked complicated and intimidating to render.  Over the last two years, I learned to sketch and paint icicles, icebergs, flowers, waterfalls, lakes, landscapes plus other things.  This collage shows some of what transpired from those lessons learned.  Is what I learned enough to tackle painting an Iceland scene?

In addition to the link in the first sentence at the top of this post to that June 28, 2017 day, these maps help give a lay of the land that was covered on that day.  What was to be a 13 hour day became a 17.5 hour day.  I won't go into details here as I shared the full story in that blog post.  The second map shows in numerical order, the locations we visited.  What I will tell you here is that when my name was called at 7:00am that morning in front of the hotel across the street from the condo I was renting, I excitedly jumped on board the small luxury bus, not realizing what I jumped on board for! 

rendering

The first stop was in Vik at Black Sand Beach where there was a view of the Basalt Stacks. This was the first painting in the series of four that I did for this version of a "remembering & rendering" post.  These four paintings were done in a hard covered journal that measures 8" x 5.5" with the painting size at 6.5" x 4". The paper is 140 lbs, 100% cotton, cold press.

my photos used as references 

 

Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon was our second stop but my third painting in this series.  I choose to simplify this creation by painting two icebergs rather than the many that were actually there.  After declaring the project complete and I stepped back to look at it, I wish I had painted more icebergs.  It was at this time too that I remembered the numbers theory of there should be an odd number of objects not even.  That being said, when I look at the painting as I type this, the scene still takes me back to being there on that day!  

my photos used as references

Hiking and climbing up on the Falljokull Glacier was not on the itinerary for the tour I signed up for and paid for, yet I got to do it for free!  This was our third stop but my last painting.  I left it to the last, I was not sure I would even attempt to paint something from this experience, rendering the scenes seemed complicated and beyond my ability.  Lots of self talk took place and I got to a place where I knew I needed to create a painting.  Experiencing what I did on this Glacier was an unplanned and unexpected amazing gift!  It was complicated to paint, I accept the outcome even though it is not what I thought it would look like when done.  Painting icebergs in the water is much easier than painting glaciers in the mountains!

my photos used as references 

Visiting Seljalandsfoss Waterfalls was our last stop but my second painting.   Our guide/drive decided at the last second, which was around 10:00pm, to pull off at this stop.  A few stayed asleep on the bus and the rest of us hiked up to the falls. I was the only one to go behind the falls.  I had my tripod with me so it was easy to capture a selfie.  Coming away completely soaked from head to toe, through and through, was so absolutely worth it!  

my photos used as references

(the red star shows where I stood behind the falls)

It was a childhood dream to go to Iceland!  It had always been a dream too, to be able to watercolour paint.  Mixing Iceland with watercolour painting has been double the pleasure!