Iceland Wall Art Collection 🇮🇸
I’ve finally finished my Iceland collection (for now… 😆). Iceland is one of those places that really stays with you. I’ve been there twice, once in 2014 and again last December, and both times I was amazed by the landscape. What I love just as much as the big dramatic scenery is the Nordic houses. They’re simple, colorful, and full of charm. During my most recent trip, I did some sketching on location, and those sketches appeared in an earlier blog post. But this collection mostly came from photos I took during my visits, which I’ve been working from over the past few months.
With these paintings, I wanted to capture both sides of Iceland: the cozy houses and the powerful nature, waterfalls, geysers, glaciers, and volcanic mountains. Here are some of my pieces in this collection:.
View from Hallgrímskirkja, Reykjavík
This painting is based on the view from Hallgrímskirkja in Reykjavík. A friend once shared a photo of this view with me, and I knew I wanted to paint it someday. Later, when I visited Iceland myself, I finally saw it in real life. Instead of painting it very realistically, I simplified it and added houses as I worked. It became more about the feeling of the place than the exact view.
Rainbow Street & Northern Lights, Reykjavík
Here is another piece from the city. In Reykjavík, I loved the rainbow street leading up to Hallgrímskirkja. It’s such a bright and happy place. In my painting, I added a bit of imagination by placing colorful houses under the Northern Lights. It’s not exactly real, but it felt right for the mood I wanted to create.
Arnarstapi, Snæfellsnes Peninsula
Arnarstapi is a small village on Iceland’s Snæfellsnes Peninsula, known for its cliffs and wild sea views. For this piece, I used a limited color palette: indanthrone blue, quinacridone gold, and alizarin crimson. I wanted to keep the colors simple and create an atmospheric feeling. I was trying to capture how the light felt in December, when everything looks like a soft sunrise or sunset all day long.
Strokkur Geyser, Haukadalur
One of the paintings shows Strokkur geyser in the Haukadalur geothermal area. When I was there, I remember the strong contrast between the sky, steam, and water. It felt dramatic and constantly changing. I used my photos as reference, but I didn’t try to copy them exactly.
Kirkjufell Mountain
During my trip, I visited Kirkjufell in person. This painting was an exception as I had already painted it before going, so it was interesting to see the real place compared to my painting. Kirkjufell is a 463-meter mountain on the Snæfellsnes Peninsula, near Grundarfjörður. Its shape makes it one of the most photographed mountains in Iceland.
Búðakirkja, Snæfellsnes Peninsula
This is a watercolor sketch of Búðakirkja, the small black church on the Snæfellsnes Peninsula. I also took a couple of photos of it during my trip, which I used as reference. Búðakirkja sits in a very striking location, surrounded by dramatic lava fields, mountains, and wide open sky. It feels very simple and quiet, but at the same time very powerful because of its surroundings.
Vestrahorn & Skógafoss
The last pieces in the collection focus on Iceland’s dramatic landscapes. Vestrahorn is a volcanic mountain area in the southeast of Iceland. It has very sharp peaks and strong light, which makes it very striking.
Skógafoss is one of the most famous waterfalls in Iceland. In my painting, I focused on movement, light, and the contrast between water and land. I kept the palette very simple, using only four colors. This one was also outside my comfort zone, but it helped me improve my watercolor skills and try new color combinations.
Jökulsárlón Glacier
And of course, I needed to include a glacier. Jökulsárlón is one of those places that feels almost unreal, with large pieces of ice slowly drifting across a calm, icy-blue lagoon. For this painting, I focused on keeping things simple and quiet, using a limited palette to capture that still, peaceful feeling. I was especially drawn to the contrast between the soft water and the solid shapes of the ice, and tried to translate that into a calm, minimalist composition.
This Iceland collection has been a really meaningful project for me. It helped me grow as an artist and try things I wouldn’t normally do.Some paintings were easier, others were very challenging—but all of them taught me something.
A few of these pieces are available as giclée prints in my Etsy shop if you’d like to see them there.
