I got to spend the first couple of weeks in October in Shetland! I had never been there in early Autumn and it had been nine years since I traveled there with my mom. I wasn’t sure I would ever get to go with her again, since normally she goes for a few weeks every year to be with family and decompress while I stay in Philly with my dad. This year, thanks to the extraordinary generosity of family who cared for my dad with lots of love and delicious food, (looking at you Carol and LizAnn!), I was able to travel with my mom.
First, the Fall colors and light! The summery bright green grass was still everywhere, just with tinges of yellows, oranges and browns in a lot of places. Then there were entire fields and hillsides filled with grasses of a glowing coral color I can’t even describe and my phone camera couldn’t fully capture. I expected the light to be harsh, since days were getting measurably shorter by eight minutes sunrise to sunset every day. But the light was mostly very soft and of course, spectacular.
The moods of the sky and sea are highly changeable this time of year. They are changeable all year, honestly, but the winds were gales and the moody sky got DARK and the rough sea looked so turbulent, and there were days where it felt like four seasons passed through.
Then, of course my family and friends and being in a place that feels very much like home. I got to spend quality time with my mom, go to my great uncle’s 97th birthday party, go on beach walks with friends, and take my sketchbook around Lerwick on a few nice afternoons. On the first afternoon there I sat with a warm coffee at the dock by the museum and drew the harbor for an hour. Peace, solitude, the sea air and sounds, fingerless gloves, studying what was in front of me and drawing it out = my idea of relaxing and replenishment. Every day was lovely, even the days of gales and rain.
Here is my Uncle Bill’s dog Lassie, always wanting to be wherever the people are. She decided I was a person of importance, which was both good and bad, as she had two speeds — zero and eleven. Eleven was a lot to handle at 7:00 am every day. It’s not every day that you find someone with that kind of enthusiasm for you, though, so I’ll call it very sweet.
If you are a fan of the show Shetland, of course this is D.I. Perez’s house, also known as part of The Lodberries. Also a few other photos of Lerwick, the lovely capital.
As we took off from the airport I had a seat with a fantastic view of Sumburgh Head and the lighthouse where I stayed for my residency in 2016. You can barely see it at the tip of the furthest point on the island in this photo, but it’s there and I got to wave goodbye. I got to know that spot very well, staying there for a month by myself, so it has a special place in my heart.
I was so sad to learn while I was there that the residency program no longer exists, and that the lighthouse had experienced a flood over the summer so the room I called my studio, the one with the 180 degree window, was not open due to the damage. Then, a few weeks ago I also learned that Angela Hunt, the lovely woman who ran the residency program and the lighthouse when I was there, had died. Sometime in 2016 she was diagnosed with a degenerative neurological illness, and it took hold and a few years later it took her life. She was such a vibrant, generous, creative, full-of-life person when I met her. I can hardly believe how quickly everything changed, but that is how life happens so often. Things change monumentally in a moment. I feel very lucky to have been where I was to get to know her when I did. May she rest in peace.
