For some time, I had dreamed of applying to an artist’s residency. Through motherhood I had the benefit of an artist’s life that afforded me some solitude and even occasional solo travel. I knew I wanted to go for longer, farther and be more artistically serious and focused on an excursion. For many years, I trained my observational skills with gouache and watercolor in my workbooks from Montana, Hawaii, Costa Rica, and Panama. Now it was time to fly, but where?

ICELAND! Several artist peers and ventured to the far north, and their work was interesting and bold. Plus, there were horses! The Baer Art Center near Hofsós is five hours by bus from Reykjavik. It was isolated, it was beautiful, the buildings looked modern and interesting. I had watched deadlines come and go for several years. Finally, the timing was right.

For artists reading this, I took a step that might be helpful. Before applying, I made contact with the owner of the facility. I knew there were horses nearby, but I didn’t just want to look at the horses. I wanted to touch them, smell them, learn about them, and imagine a life with them. I asked if we had access to the horses, and she actually encouraged that interaction and welcomed my inquiry.

As a swimmer, I knew there were geothermal bathing and swimming pools in Iceland. How close were they? Could I walk? Could I ride a bike? Yes, and she was a swimmer, too. I decided to apply and was accepted into a group of four other women artists to arrive early July and stay for two weeks. There was a reasonable fee for the lodging and a rented van. Well worth it!

How would I get there? Did I have to figure it out all on my own? The center provided guidelines for setting up a short stay in Reykjavik after flying to Keflavik airport. Iceland is efficient and has good public transportation. It was easy to find a link to book my bus trip out of the city. By then I could contact the other participants to ask questions and start to coordinate travel and materials. Connections were made.

Once we arrived, we were greeted and generously hosted by Steinunn, the creator of Baer Art Center. As an artist and architectural designer, she has curated the living and working spaces to provide the perfect tabula rasa empty of previous artists’ presence. It is a clean slate to begin anew. Basic materials were available for us to use and share, but the initial creative impulse began in the art supplies we each brought with us.

My workbook, water-based paints, brushes, some paper to collage plus space and time began to add up into observational responses to the place. I experimented with colors, movement and textures on paper. I tore, cut and glued. The fjords, cape, fields, horses, arctic terns and the glow of the midnight sun saturated my mind and began to emerge in the images that I started to make.

During my two weeks at Baer, this small group of creative women began to find their groove. We swam, shopped, cooked, created, explored, and laughed together. I think I can confidently say for the group that we took our time there seriously but with fun and ease. We didn’t snoop or smother each other. We cheered each other on! We shared food, materials, and stories. The well-designed spaces to gather and studios to isolate allowed us to have the experience we each needed. We even did yoga together.

Upon arrival, two weeks seemed like an eternity. By the end, it was like a blink in time. At the end of two weeks, I had embodied images that described the compressed quality of light, the heaviness of sky and the solidity of this land of fire and ice. I brought 10 sheets of 30×22 inch Rives BFK paper and mixed washes of varied density using thinned watercolor and acrylic paint. Each day I would sweep a large brush from edge to edge, top to bottom, adding color like light and space to create the woven skyscapes that I emerged. I see these as individual finished works, loosely titled Midnight Sun, Iceland. Now that they are back in the studio, they will become the basis for the work that I create for Gallery MAR as 2026 ends, and as I look to my next creative adventures in 2027.