Why Vastness Holds Power
The first morning in the north of Iceland felt like stepping into another rhythm, a rhythm that, ultimately, would shape a new series of symbolic contemporary art.
The sky was dusky blue, silent and sharp at the same time. Everything was vast.
Everything breathed emptiness, but not the kind we fear. This was spaciousness.
As if the land itself whispered: let go, be small, but be fully here.
I walked there, near lava fields and wind slicing across my skin like unspoken thoughts. And suddenly I felt it, in the magnitude of this place, nothing needed to be explained or captured.
Everything could simply arise.
symbolic contemporary art
The Icelandic emptiness taught me to look again.
Not to seek meaning, but to let meaning find me.
Within the nothingness, my thoughts found space.
Within the silence, I found myself again.
Not as an artist who needed to create something,
but as a human, listening and seeing.
“In this series of symbolic contemporary art, small Icelandic houses stand as quiet testaments to human presence.”
Intuitive painting and a symbolic story
It inspired a different way of painting.
Less planning. More presence.
Less control. More trust in what the canvas might suggest.
That’s how the Icelandic Houses Arteries series began,
paintings where small human shelters stand gently in overwhelming landscapes.
Symbols for how we, as humans, relate to what is greater than us.
A Painting Process in the Wind
I remember working in silence, sometimes for hours,
accompanied only by screeching birds and the soft rhythm of my brush.
The paint blended not only on the palette,
but also with the stories of the elements, earth, air, mist.
These works hold wind.
They hold breath.
They hold space.
“Vastness is not emptiness.
It is power, in its purest form.”
Icelandic Houses – Featured Works
A small house beneath a colored sky, framed by dark strokes; lines of memory
Would you like to experience these works in person, and smell the oil paint on linen? Or get the feeling with the mixed media materials?
You’re welcome in my studio.
Vastness challenges us.
It invites us to slow down,
to release expectations.
Where do you find your own spaciousness?
Feel free to write me, or to come and see the works in silence.
Warmly,
LACE Ruig