Arctic Circle Art
I hope you enjoy my oil paintings and works on paper initiated during my October 2022 Artist Residency in Svalbard (TheArcticCircle.org).
The Arctic Circle: What is The Arctic Circle artist residency? A twice-annual sailing expedition around the island archipelago of Svalbard, located midway between the North Pole and the north coast of Norway. Scandinavia, Norway and Svalbard in particular (as well as Greenland and Northern Canada) have been launching points for polar explorers. Now, it is a launch for artists, scientists and educators to explore this one-of-a-kind place.
It is a conscious decision of the residency’s founders to use a sailing vessel so as to travel as much as possible while minimizing our impact. So it’s a sailing ship – yes, with a motor, we travel on. We minimize our impact – Zodiak landing, hiking, …… my craft is painting on location. I chose to paint in water color and oils – without the use of medium or even thinner for cleaning brushes. Painting knives, paint squeezed directly from the tube onto the canvas, and gloved hands. Also crayons, acid-free paper, thin plastic sheets.
Notes
27 artists, painters, photographers, sound artists, glass blower, a dancer, teachers, novelists, poets, memoirist, calligrapher, researchers. A crew of 11: captain and two mates; four guides; four cooks, servers and service personnel. 14 days on the ship, several days before and after sailing, two days each to fly there and return. A typical day, morning on-deck, breakfast, meeting, morning landing, lunch and meeting, afternoon landing or zodiac cruising, dinner, evening presentations, sailing and sailing instruction, much unpacking and changing and hauling gear to and from the ship. Much of my art focuses on Watershed, and in MN there are three …… To more fully understand the Arctic Ocean watershed required traveling to the Arctic Ocean. Other artist residencies I’ve completed have been solo ventures, yes with a mentor, but with me as a solo artist – besides the artists exhibiting at the art center where I had an 18-month studio residency. The Arctic Circle would be unique – twenty-seven (to thirty) of us artists researching and creating art simultaneously while exploring……
Artists – two painters, several writers (novelist, memoir writer, poets, researchers studying polar exploration history), calligrapher/letter press printer, a modern dancer, a technologist (who fished for RF bouncing off the Ionosphere), sound recording, individuals studying ice/ice cores, scanning the ship and ice and replicating it in 3D printing, ….. sound recording, video recording, large format cameras (view cameras – 4” x 5” negative plates as in the original photographers methods
Eleven crew, guides, chef and cooks/service personnel
Captain, and First and Second Mate
International crew: Netherlands Norwegian and Scottish sailors; plus Mexico City/Acapulco Mobile Artist sailor
Spanish chef,
Svalbard formed by tectonic collisions that thrust up mountings – not volcanic as in Iceland
One of the more glaciated placed on earth, however, it’s a polar desert. Very little precipitation usually.
Biologically rich for the high latitude (76 to 80.5 degrees north), meeting of the last remnant of the gulf stream and the north Atlantic and other currents churns up sea phyotoplankton feeding krill, and in turn seals and polar bear, walrus suck out mullusks, bird life …. Arctic Tern (longest migration – from Svalbard to Antartica. Arctic Fox, Svalbard Reindeer
Wildlife: more polar bears than people ….. sorry, no norwhals
Why people? Dutch discovered the islands on their way back from a failed attempt searching for a northern passage to Asia.
Whaling – the Right Whale for oil, other whales ….. that could be floated to land and harvested
Trappers – fox, seal,
Gypsum Mining
Coal Mining in early 1900s – Mr. Longyear … one of the places where you go up a mountain to mine a pure vein of coal…. When Svalbard and other continents lay near the equator and supported trees. It took 20 meters of accumulated organic matter to be transformed into the fossil fuel of coal. Two grades: one for heating; one for export for molding. A small (but not negligible) amount of coal is used in the central plant to heat the homes and businesses of Svalbard…..
War and 1945/46 – preservation of cultural heritage …. War – most of Longyearbyen was destroyed/burned in the war
Norwegians AND the Russians maintain control over Svalbard – mostly Norway …. Potential base of operations if the sea ice retreats further and oil exploration / recovery…….
Transitioning from mining (mostly men) and trappers (men, but some women too), to tourism and families
North Pole Exploration AND cold climate research, and International Seed Bank
How do people survive there? Layers, fit people, active lifestyles, huskies and dogs everywhere – dog sled (in winter and wheeled in summer), Toyotas (one garage/dealership);
Limited population, limited construction of homes, voting system …..
Not touching or disturbing cultural heritage…..some garbage clean-up, minimal removing / disturbing ….. try to disturb the vegetation as minimally as possible. The International Seed Bank (Global Seed Vault) is what most people have heard of the place, population of 2,368. Mining,
Ship route, landings, art, photography.
Several ways for a person to visit Svalbard, relatively easy, you can fly to Longyearbyen on a commercial flight via Oslo and Tromso, Norway. From there, you can contract with a ship or guides to explore land and sea.
Lots of photography, videotaping, sound recording, painting in my case, drones, journaling, ham radio exploration, immersing oneself in the environment. Quite visceral – feeling the environment, …… tight quarters, some collaboration, helping each other on and off, lending & giving supplies, clothing, …..
https://en.visitsvalbard.com/inspiration/various/historical-expeditions
Historical Expeditions
Expeditions to the North Pole
The history of Svalbard is marked by many exciting expeditions, dating back to 1850. Due to Svalbard’s latitude in the high north combined with favourable ice conditions, the archipelago was an ideal point of departure for expeditions aiming to reach the North Pole. During the period from 1896 to 1928, no fewer than nine expeditions set off from Svalbard in the race to be the first to reach the North Pole. Though the nominal goal tended to be scientific, expedition leaders, participants and sponsors were often motivated by considerations such as national or personal prestige. The Arctic seemed to beckon to people of heroic mettle, goading them into feats of remarkable stamina, actions that became, as such, national symbols and that brought personal glory to the performer when he returned, be he dead or alive. (sysselmannen.no)
The Andrée expedition which ended with a polar bear attack
In 1897, Salomon August Andrée attempted to reach the North Pole by hot air balloon. However, the Swedish explorer and engineer led what proved to be one of the most disastrous expeditions in history.
The plan was to fly in the hydrogen balloon Örnen (the Eagle) from Svalbard to the North Pole. He was joined on the expedition by engineer Knut Frænkel and Nils Strindberg, who was the expedition’s photographer. He took off from Virgohamna in North-west Svalbard on 11 July 1897 and headed in the direction of the North Pole. The expedition was equipped with provisions for six months. However, the crew quickly experienced problems. During the ascent, they lost parts of the large tow line intended to balance and steer the balloon. Furthermore, the weather was unfavourable, and the balloon encountered fog and clouds on the first night. As a result, the balloon became heavy from the moisture and lost altitude. After just 65 hours and 33 minutes in the air, it was forced to land on the ice. The trio then planned an expedition across the ice to Frans Josefs Land about 300 km away. (polarhistorie.no)
The trio spent three months walking across the ice towards Frans Josefs Land and later Svalbard after the current led them in the wrong direction. This was an extremely strenuous trek, which left them physically exhausted. This may be put down to poor planning and heavy equipment. They had to discard equipment and provisions to reduce the weight of the sleds, and lacked essential equipment, including skis. Hunting food proved difficult with poor firearms and no fishing gear, but they managed to shoot seals and polar bears. In September of the same year, they spotted Kvitøya (White Island), where they decided to overwinter.
It took 33 years until their bodies were discovered, along with equipment, diaries, notes and photographs. This is how the world gained an insight into the battle for survival by Andrée, Frænkel and Strindberg. Recent research indicates the cause of death was a polar bear attack. (Svalbard Museum)
Read more about this fascinating expedition in the book The Expedition: My Love Story by Bea Uusma, published in 2014.
Roald Amundsen, Umberto Nobile and the airship Norge
Polar explorer Roald Amundsen was also involved in another exciting expedition, the flight over the Arctic in the airship Norge (Norway). Amundsen was joined by Italian Umberto Nobile, who designed and constructed the airship, American Ellsworth and a crew of seven Norwegians, five Italians and one Swede. They flew from Svalbard over previously unknown parts of the Arctic and the North Pole to Alaska. After exploring these areas, Amundsen established that there were no large land masses between the North Pole and Alaska, which led to the removal of the undiscovered piece of land from the world map.
Amundsen had long believed that using an aircraft was the best way to explore the unknown areas of the Arctic, and he became interested in the use of aircraft for polar research. The airship took off from Ny-Ålesund on 11 May 1926 and passed the North Pole the following day. The expedition continued to Teller in Alaska, which they reached in 72 hours.
The airship Norge was constructed by the engineer Nobile, and the expedition was based on Italian techniques. Nobile regarded the expedition as his great triumph as he had flown the airship over the ice and Amundsen’s task was ‘just’ to discover new land. Amundsen and Nobile strongly disagreed about who was the expedition leader and who should receive the honour for it.
In 1928, Nobile led a new expedition over the North Pole in the airship Italia. The airship crashed on its return, leading to a major international search and rescue operation. Among those searching was Amundsen, who was on board one of the seaplanes hoping to rescue Nobile. However, his aircraft disappeared in bad weather near Bjørnøya (Bear Island), claiming the lives of the six men on board. The wreck has never been found.
Visit the fascinating North Pole Expedition Museum in Longyearbyen to learn more about this and other airship expeditions from Svalbard.
While the South Pole lies on a continental land mass, the North Pole is located in the middle of the Arctic Ocean amid waters that are almost permanently covered with constantly shifting sea ice. The sea depth at the North Pole has been measured at 4,261 m (13,980 ft) by the Russian Mir submersible in 2007[1] and at 4,087 m (13,409 ft) by USS Nautilus in 1958.[2][3] This makes it impractical to construct a permanent station at the North Pole (unlike the South Pole).
https://clients.mindbodyonline.com/classic/mainclass
Sally Harbor (Sallyhammna) on the northwest of Svalbard’s Spitsbergen island. Much of Spitsbergen is marked by pointed mountains, from which the island’s name is derived: Dutch spits – pointed, bergen – mountains). I was drawn by the massing of large boulders against the distant mountains. I chose watercolor over oil for this day’s work because of the short time period we had on the morning’s landing. In addition to painting this and a second watercolor, I explore the small hut where Sally and Waldemar Kræmer stayed in this area for some years in the 1930s.
Norwegian trapper Waldemar Kræmer, who built a hut here in 1937.
https://www.swanexpeditions.com/sailing-areas/spitsbergen/
After the wife of Waldemar Kræmer, Sally Konstanse Kræmer, née Larsen, 1902-87, Tromsø, Norway. … She wintered in Sallyhamna with Kræmer. +−. Sallyhamna.
Sallyhamna – Svalbard, NO – Polar place names
https://stadnamn.npolar.no › Svalbard
Sallyhamna is not a big place – not a lot of space for easy walking, that is – but beautiful. Scenery, Waldemar Kræmer’s old hut
·Translate this page Sally and Waldemar Kræmer stayed in this area for some years in the … Excited though we were to visit the hut and explore ashore, the scouting team ..
Small bay, harbour and Waldemar Kræmer’s hut on the eastern side of the entrance … After the wife of Waldemar Kræmer, Sally Konstanse Kræmer, née Larsen, …
ansitting away from Longyearbyen along Isfjord (ice fjord). W
Sallyhamna – AECO
https://www.aeco.no › guidelines › site › 11-aeco-…
This harbor shelters one of the major whaling stations in Svalbard. … trapper’s cabin was built by Waldemar Kræmer in one of the whaling house remains.
http://islands.patrickrevell.me.uk/route-maps/2019-svalbard-route-maps.html
Greg Lecker: Artist - Naturalist 