From February 13th 2022 to March 13th 2022 Aidan Saunders travelled to the Arctic circle and stayed in Lofoten.

He created a series of prints and drawings from his experiences living and travelling in Norway and making contact with institutions like The Lofoten Store, The Lofotr Viking Museum and Unstad Arctic Surf.

Day one the car needed to be dug out.

Lofoten is a place of stunning beauty, with shark teeth mountains, glowing aquamarine seas and staggering wild life. Aidan’s design ‘Sea Eagle’ is a view from the house he stayed in Skelfjord, down the road were racks for the Norsk delicacy of Stokfisk (stockfish) dried hung up Cod. The mountains were punctuated with bright red fishing sheds and the seaweed was a tangled mass of muted yellow. It was 8 below freezing and although it wasn’t the dark period (24hr darkness) the sun rose but always seemed to be stuck behind a smoky haze.

The above design is a rough design based on the Scandinavian folk art ‘Klokkestreng’ an embroided tapestry that hangs inside a lot of Norwegian homes.

The design above was drawn after Aidan’s experience Arctic Surfing and visiting the Lofotr Viking Museum. Aidan had a frightening experience getting trapped amongst rocks whilst attempting to surf in rough seas. Hitting his hip on the rocks and paddling as hard as he could he felt that he was in the hands of the Norse gods.

In Scandinavian countries there are many words for snow, ‘Pudersnø’ for when it is so cold the snow doesn’t stick and just like a fine powder blows around, ‘Snøsmok’ or snow smoke is when the snow is fine and when the wind blows it can literally make it look like smoke, the mountains frequently look like they are on fire…and then there is ‘Snøfokk’ a cold biting snow which blows hard and gets into your bones.

Two cynical pieces by Aidan as March approached and an increase of tourists appeared in particular photo enthusiasts. There are multiple photo tours you can take around Lofoten and photographers who arrive seemed to be a menace to local inhabitants, walking across roads, blocking traffic and in some cases causing accidents to get the ‘perfect snap’. In the two above pieces Aidan attempts to highlight the irony of people trying to capture Lofotens beauty whilst simultaneously not truly appreciating it, missing it and ruining it.

If you would like to visit the arctic during winter Aidan recommends buying very very good waterproof winter boots and remember to do what the Norwegians do and thats layer up. This is sometimes called onion wear, have a base layer of long johns and leggings and having waterproof outer clothing. Wool is your friend.