The Journey North

Well here I am, after one full day in Iceland. I got the bus this morning at 9am from Mjodd Station in Reykjavik in the pitch dark. It stayed dark until around 11.30am when a sliver of light began to speed very slowly above the mountains. This is a pictorial record of the key points! The Netto at Mjodd station where I bought a barley and avocado salad in a plastic carton and some orange juice for later, This cost 1300isk, which is about £10......

Netto

Getting towards 11am and still dark

Fabulous Knitting ladies all over the bus 

Fantastically filthy window at exactly 12.20pm. Sun just popping over the hill to say 'morning'.

The light did become glorious once the sun appeared and the saturation of colours was beautiful. Hardly any snow to be seen - even on the tops of the mountains, except when we caught a glimpse of the Westfjords, which were pretty white all over. After a 4 hour journey we arrived at Skagastrond to Manabraut 1. My room is spacious and warm - everywhere inside in Iceland is toasty but it's a bit of a pain getting in and out of thermals, gloves, hats, coats etc. every time you want to venture outside.

The best thing about being here without snow for me, is that I can walk to places I didn't manage to get to last year. I also managed to find the hole I fell down and it's really scary. I went for a wander with my phone, rather than the camera and caught a gorgeous sunset as well as managing to get to the trig point with a view over the village.

My very spacious room in Manabraut 1

The view from the back window in my room

View from the front window in my room

If you follow the ditch left to the sea, this is the hole I fell into last year which was covered with snow. Looking at it today, it's at least 7 feet deep and is actually a stream.

These next 10 are simply images from my phone whilst I was wandering along the black sand beach near my house. It was sublime. I'd forgotten how much pink there is.

After the beach, I climbed onto the sea cliffs for the last light and saw the village from a place I could access last year because it was too dangerous.

I then finally managed to drag myself to the studio, got my paints, charcoal and bits and pieces out and did a quick refection of what I'd seen throughout the journey from memory using charcoal and watercolour paint. Linzi will be proud of me (I think!)

I am hoping that I can get back to layers throughout the residency and build some work from a combination of digital and hard copy. We shall see.

Night night.

Bless bless

Love

Aly x