Spending time alone helps to free up your mind. I’ve found that since I’ve been back in Skagaströnd, Iceland at the Nes residency. The other day I walked through a snow storm to reach the local ‘hot pot’ a geothermal heated public swimming pool and spa where the locals hang out after a hard day’s work.

This time I was all alone, gazing at the snow on the hills and the street lights around the harbour glowing orange in the snowy night. Suddenly the sky cleared, the snow stopped falling and I gazed up at tiny pinpricks of stars. An inky cloud hung over the coastal sanctuary, black against the white snow. I was entranced and inspired.

The next day I began new experiments, fuelled by the creative energy of my time away in Zurich. I began to melt snow to make paper, add ink, dry the paper into crumpled organic forms. When hung up in the studio for the Open House today they dance slowly in the air, spinning around. It’s a whole new way of working for me.

The biggest excitement came last night when we were all in the studio. Someone arrived later from the bus and called us all outside. “They’re here, the Northern Lights”. We all trooped outside in our boots and jackets to witness this event we’d been waiting for. A clear, starry night and this white mist spreading in ever changing patterns across the sky and arching over the church roof. When viewed through the camera they become green - something to do with the light spectrum. So a few wonderful photos then inside to warm up and continue hanging paper for today. It’s a wonderful cumulation of all my month’s experiments and I am so very happy with the result.