At 7pm in the evening I stepped out of Longyearbyen airport and instantly felt deeply elated and relieved- surrounded by light, colours and views across the fjord to the ancient mountain shapes, which I know so well. Really, really good to be back in this Arctic home, after spending the last 5 years in Scotland.
(Over those years I’d moved between several painting studios in Dundee, Grantown-On-Spey, Nairn and Forres, given birth to our now 3-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Primrose River, and had a major solo exhibition called ‘A Piece Of Sky’. During the 5-month run of the exhibition, the Arctic calling became potent and clear- I knew I needed to travel north to see and feel the reality of our precious north, at this time).
It was cloudy and windy when I arrived in Longyearbyen and the sun was to remain in the sky for 24 hours each day, for all of my trip and for the next three weeks.
My expedition plans had to change and were moulded for several days by the humbling wind, which was so strong that the middle of the three fjords which I needed to cross, Sassenfjord, was impassable.
I had planned to spend 5 days in the incredible Bay of Petunia (Petuniabukta), which is where the Czech Arctic Research Station has several remote cabins on the edge of Billefjorden, opposite the most majestic glacier I’ve ever met. She is called Nordenskioldbreen and she is the reason I was called to Svalbard this summer.
In 2016, I also spent time making painting research in Svalbard, during midnight sun, and, part of that expedition involved 9 days at the petunia outpost of the Czech arctic research station. It has been an honour to be invited to work as a guest of the Czech research station several times since 2016- and to have had the chance to revisit and spend focussed time with these sacred landscapes.
This summer was the first time that I witnessed undeniable climate change.
When the sun is circling in the sky for long days and nights, the landscape is raw and stripped back to its essential state- which is constantly in flux throughout the year.
Extremely different seasonal states mean that the deeply frozen, thawing and fast melting glaciers, rivers, fjords, mountains and bays, are always moving.
Even the ancient Permafrost (layers of soil and sediment which had previously remained below zero degrees, for hundreds of thousands of years) is no longer frozen all year round.
The instability caused by rising temperatures is devastating for the structure of the landscape, and for our atmosphere; As the Permafrost melts, the organic ground warms, shifts and releases Methane and CO2. These greenhouse gases capture heat and are hugely significant in Global Warming…
After a week of extreme wind, the universe gifted Svalbard a window of calm. We made it across all three fjords on an electric catamaran which was very smooth in the big waves. We travelled past the incredible views across to Trollheimen Land, which I had painted earlier in the week. (I had borrowed my friend Sarah’s van, to use as a Polar Bear proof studio, out at the western lighthouse, beyond the birds…) Then on towards Dicksonland, across Sassenfjord and into the calmer waters of Billefjorden and Skansbukta, before heading towards the incredible Pyramiden and Mumien mountains, which are close to The Czech Arctic Research Station.
The boat then turned and headed east in to Adolfbukta, to the luminous Nordenskioldbreen- the glacier I had travelled two thousand miles to spend time painting… We spent an hour floating near the front of Nordenskioldbreen, watching waterfalls pour down her front and into the sparkling water, which had only a few tiny ice bergs floating in it. The lack of icebergs of all sizes was really shocking…The sun was dazzling and the melt was undeniable. It was incredibly humbling to be back in the presence of this most magnificent ancient being of ice, and yet it was deeply sad to see and feel how much she has changed. Historically a marine glacier but retreating fast, it now might not be long until all of the front of Nordenskioldbreen ends on black rock.
When I returned to Scotland I was serendipitously invited to move into a big new studio in Auchernack House (thank you Sustainable Planets), and worked with a joiner to create my ideal painting environment.
Since landing in my new painting home, I’ve dedicated most days and lots of night-times whilst dreaming, (then waking to make notes in sketchbooks), to beginning a new body of work, which will hopefully communicate some of the grief and magic, which I experienced in the Arctic landscape.
I feel the Arctic in every cell of my being, it is now heavy like a giant shadow and it is also light like a million crystal shards of dazzling sky- it is the Arctic paradox.
These landscapes are still so massive and majestic and yet changing so incredibly fast- these wild, wise places are being irrevocably damaged because our Anthropocene is accelerating universal shifts and the damage is now obvious and stark.
I will continue to share images of my new work and more about my latest Arctic journey, in time.
I am currently preparing to journey to Oslo, to exhibit some of my work in the first Polar Arts section, of the Svalbard Science Conference. It is an honour to be invited to be part of this important Science- Art discussion and to share my work with lots of Svalbard experts.
Later in 2025 I will also be showing some of my new work in Edinburgh. I will share information about this exhibition soon.
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