August in Iceland

My final month has gone really well at NES. I have to admit I'm a little bit heartbroken having to leave both NES and Skagastrond but the overall experience has been great, in the 3 months I was here I met and worked with some great people who even though I only got to know them for a month at a time I still consider them really good friends.

The month wasn't as busy maybe as July I think mostly because after 2 months I felt like August was a bit of a wind down period but I was painting away and passed the target I had set myself so I'm really happy with how the work went. My work has definitely progressed onto another path and I also have plenty of ideas for new work returning to Ireland. This month also saw 2 studio pot-lucks and 2 Open House days. It was a really nice way to end my stay in Skagastrond with a second festival - Kantrydagar. There seemed to be more activity for this festival than the Fisherman's Festival in June, There was a huge tent set up in the centre of town where music played most of the day and night, the was a ball on the Friday and Saturday nights at Kantrybaer, along with sports competitions. I made my second journey Saudarkrokur too earlier in the month. 

I'm looking forward to going home to Ireland but I would love to have stayed a bit longer in Iceland. Financially though I just can't, I pretty much had what covered 3 months on the mark and the way I'm fixed even staying for 1 more month is out of the question, but I am planning to return next summer to a different residency and over a shorter period of time. If get back to Iceland next summer I'll definitely visit NES and Skagastrond at some point. Right now it's 4 days in Reykjavik 1 night in the airport and the home via Heathrow

Like I said above I'm looking forward to getting back to Ireland and I intend to take some time away from the studio for a few weeks just to work on ideas and stand back and get a clear idea in my head of the Icelandic experience.

I want to say a massive thanks to Melody Woodnutt who is Director of NES and Andrea Weber who worked as Intern at NES and everyone on the board of NES for everything they did for us and for running a class residency.

See you Skagastrond, see you NES!