Iceland was my dream country to visit for at least the second half of my young life, and in November of 2019, that dream had come true. I had only traveled by plane outside of the country once before, and this was my first time being outside of Canada and the US. I remember on the first morning, we arrived around 6AM so it was pitch black and we were exhausted, our hotel room wasn't ready yet so we dropped off our bags and went to a little cafe down the street for some bread and coffee. We were tired, but we had time to kill, so we went for a walk after warming ourselves with caffeine... the morning sun made the sky glow a hue of purple and pink. We walked down the street that the cafe was on with no destination in mind, and I honestly don't remember what we were talking about, but when we came to a stop by some lights and I looked down towards the shoreline and - I just stopped, because it was the first time I had seen a mountain.
I still dream of going back almost every day.
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Soulful
-Palette Knife on Canvas 16 x 20 Inch.
About our third day in, we decided to take the car we were renting and just explore. The roads are very winding and the wind was powerful on this particular November day, but the sights were nothing but magical.
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Black Sands
-Palette Knife on Wood Block
on our first day with the car we went out exploring, the winds were crazy and the roads were nerve wracking. We tried to drive into a national park to see some hot springs, but the roads wound through mountains and the winds were pushing us, we stopped for a moment to catch our breath and shot some photos.
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Flow
-Palette Knife on Wood Block
On our second last day we spent the morning and afternoon hiking to the top of an icy mountain to bathe in the natural beauties of the hot springs. The hike was long and tiring but the moment we got to the hot river we were able to relax in a natural hot tub.
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Iceland
-Acrylic on Canvas 3 x 4 ft
This was based at the stop point we took when the roads were too windy. The art style I worked with here is my usual style. The painting, I started before the lockdown began, and finished in September 2020. This was the first large painting I decided to do after my 4 year hiatus.
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Flow
-Watercolour in Sketchbook
While this photo is Identical to a couple photos above for another painting, this watercolour was the first one I had done, and also was the start of my Iceland series.
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Free
-Watercolour in Sketchbook
On the Hike up the mountain to the hot springs, there were a lot of volcanic rocks, though this one was certainly one of the largest as a standalone.
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Smooth
-Watercolour in Sketchbook
You will definitely see that a lot of the paintings I started with are based off the hike up the mountain. We were in Iceland for a music festival, so the first half of the visit we were in Reykjavik, while a lot of my photos from there show the beauty of the city, I wanted to start by focusing on the beauty of the nature in area surrounding the capital.
This photo was again from the hike to the hot springs, it was the small trails of the hot river at the bottom of the mountain. Though, how this river worked was that down here where this photo was taken was much cooler than it would be up towards the top. This part was actually cool to the touch.
