An Accidental Tourist in Iceland

February 21, 2018

During the trade show season in the middle of winter, one event runs into another and there is rarely time to breathe, let alone take a break between shows. Weekends disappear as soon as January gets going and I resurface late February and with that I emerge into Spring. I’ve been doing this for a few years, travelling between London, New York and other European destinations where I meet buyers for my Cityscape product ranges and licensees for my artwork at lifestyle and giftware trade shows.

So London turned into New York, which quickly moved into Toronto where I met up with our Canadian licensees, Lifestyle Market as well as spending an evening with my sister and her family. 24 hours in Toronto and then straight off to Ambiente trade show in Germany to meet up with Team Judge Sampson at our booth at the show. Well that was the plan …

A delayed flight connection in Reykjavik meant that I got stranded in Iceland for a further 24 hours. Landing in Iceland in the middle of the night with an ice storm blowing wasn’t part of my plan but I decided to embrace it with an open mind and heart and so when daylight broke I set out to discover Reykjavik.  Having just drawn Iceland for a shop on the island I wanted to explore this strange and wonderful snow covered land and so with the help of fellow passengers from Canada I gingerly made my way over black ice and snow mountains into the capital. 

The winter sun shone and lit up the town in all its splendour and gave us some much welcome Vitamin D. The stunning Hallsgrimskyrkja church was like a beacon and the architectural wonder of the Harpa Concert Hall was a joy to discover.

 Both feature in my Cityscape of Iceland as do the adorable, little tin houses.

Visiting a place that I’ve drawn is always a pleasure but a frustration too as I get to see the lie of the land and want to go back to the drawing board and create from experience and not just google earth! Having had a day stolen from trade shows purely for myself was a gift. I found some new friends amongst the ice and said hello to a country that I already want to return to. Maybe I’ll book another flight with a tight connection and leave it to the universe to decide whether it’ll give me a chance to be an accidental tourist again!

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