Vesterålen, Norway

The Arctic light there is unlike anywhere else — pale, fast-moving, never quite settling. The red houses are the only warmth in the whole scene, and they have to work hard for it.

An original watercolour of a Vesterålen shore in northern Norway, on Arches HP 100% cotton. The Vesterålen archipelago sits north of Lofoten inside the Arctic Circle — a chain of mountain islands where the Norwegian Sea breaks against pale sand beaches and small fishing settlements cling to the wind side. Two red houses, a dark peak, the pale sand: the kind of scene Arctic light gives you in narrow afternoon windows before the cloud comes back down.