Landscape Print – Humpbacks

In the autumn of 2021, See Nature's Fury took a trip out to Iceland to explore the Reykjanes peninsula primarily to explore the (now quiet) Geldingadalir volcano which had begun erupting earlier in the year. To get to that site, you have to traverse the ridges of the Fagradalsfjall mountains - a series of barren, desolate peaks that don't so much as house a patch of grass. It is a unique, almost alien landscape forged over millennia from geothermal activity whose valleys are now filled with fresh, charcoal coloured rock from the eruption.
That bleakness is softened and transformed however as the sun goes down and the golden palettes of sunset combine with the sea air to bring out the rich earthy textures of the mossland and the twilight hues of the mountains receding into haze.
There is such a tranquility to this scene which I find ironic given the hostility of the landscape. The mountain textures now look like brushstrokes with their harsh edges softened by the light and this view struck me on the way back to the car which I thought had the appearance of a pod of humpback whales breaching the surface.