Artist recreates scenes of Norwegian Arctic in Dartmoor barn

A British artist has recreated the Norwegian Arctic in an 18th century barn in the heart of Dartmoor in a bid to combat the winter darkness.

Emily Powell, 34, undertook an expedition on the fishing island of Sommaroy in March – taking in the colours of the Northern lights, coral beaches and snow-topped mountains.

She painted 20 pieces of art while hiking around the island before returning to Britain to transform her studio in a barn on the edge of Dartmoor in floor-to-ceiling pieces.

Her giant works were created without referring to pictures, with Mrs Powell using acrylic paints, oil pastels, paintbrushes and a kitchen broom to fill the 100 metre square space.

The contemporary artist, of Brixham, Devon, said: “I’ve never been anywhere like the Arctic before.

“Winter is hard because I have PTSD because I lost Dad when I was seven in October 1997, so I’ve had 27 years of bad winters.

“Last winter was really, really tough because my father-in-law was unwell. I felt I needed to do something exciting, really fill my head with bright colours and a new environment.

“I planned this expedition to the Arctic just to fill my mind with beautiful things and new things, to fight that grief with new light and excitement.”

She set off to Norway as part of a team of four people, bringing rolls of neon pink paper, and her acrylic paints as well as hiking equipment and warm clothing.

There was just one tube of white paint in her set, leading Mrs Powell to experiment with peach, pink and intense blue colours instead.

The team spent four days exploring the sights of the island, which are represented in her studio by six giant pieces in her Arktisk exhibition.

During their expedition, they discovered “kind” local people, with multi-coloured houses scattered across the landscape.

Many houses had large woven hearts on their doors, which Mrs Powell described as “an antidote for anyone who isn’t sure about dark nights”.

She added: “We’d go on hikes, walk up mountains, around lakes, finding beautiful vistas – spending our time looking for really interesting things to paint but we were completely spoilt for choice.

“There’s coral beaches, huge panoramas and mountains. I wasn’t expecting it to be so tropical in terms of colour but it was very bright and colourful.”

On her return to the UK, a team of set builders created a frame of giant canvases to cover her studio before Mrs Powell spent two months painting scenes of Norway directly onto them.

Her pieces are called Northern Lights, Whale Mountain, The Islands of Sommaroy, Birds Transcending Whale Mountain, Arctic Meadow and Coral Beach.

Mrs Powell said: “It felt so powerful to paint so big, and wonderful to bring it back to Devon.

“I didn’t use any photographs to paint from, so these are just the memories of it.”

The resulting exhibition, entitled Arktisk – Norwegian for Arctic – opens on Wednesday in Mrs Powell’s studio on Ullacombe Farm in Bovey Tracey, Devon.

It will be open from Wednesday to Sunday for two weeks, with members of the public able to purchase individual squares from the giant canvases as well as the artworks created on paper in Norway.

There will also be pieces available from 4pm online on the days the exhibition is open.