Artist fights winter darkness with Arctic art

A barn on Dartmoor has become the canvas for an artist's recreation of the Norwegian Arctic.

The artwork by Emily Powell has been created in a bid to combat the winter darkness and will be displayed in an exhibition called Arktisk in an 18th Dartmoor Century barn in Ullacombe Farm, near Bovey Tracey, which opens on Saturday.

The 34-year-old undertook an expedition to the Norwegian island of Sommaroy in March – taking in the colours of the Northern lights, coral beaches and snow-topped mountains.

She painted 20 pieces of art while hiking around the island before returning to Britain to transform her barn studio with floor-to-ceiling pieces.

Ms Powell, who is originally from Liverpool but now lives in Brixham, said her painting style helped her express how she is feeling.

She said: "I was not very good as reading and writing, so I always used art as my main output to describe my emotions and how I could express myself.

"You see the real fight in the work, it's not small brush strokes and it's not apologetic, it's very brave and bold and I'm not feeling sad."

At the age of seven, Ms Powell's father David Moore died and she said her artwork has helped her cope with this grief.

The contemporary artist said: "Winter is hard because I have PTSD because I lost my dad when I was seven in October 1997, so I've had 27 years of bad winters.

"Last winter was really, really tough because my father-in-law was unwell.

"I felt I needed to do something exciting, really fill my head with bright colours and a new environment."

Ms Powell added she felt there was not the care around for children in the 1990s like her who were going through grief, so she had to find her own way of managing it.

"Art was a really powerful way of doing that, so it has given me a lot," she said.

Her giant works were created without referring to pictures, with Ms Powell using acrylic paints, oil pastels, paintbrushes and a kitchen broom to fill the 100 sq m (1,000 sq ft) space.

On her return to the UK, a team of set builders created a frame of giant canvases to cover her studio before Ms Powell spent two months painting scenes of Norway directly onto them.

Her pieces are called Northern Lights, Whale Mountain, The Islands of Sommaroy, Birds Transcending Whale Mountain, Arctic Meadow and Coral Beach.

Ms Powell said her work has already had an emotional impact on people who have seen it.

"The farm's cafe staff who bring me cups of tea and some of them have burst into tears because they're overwhelmed by it because it is such a powerful experience seeing that much art in one space," she said.

After Saturday, the exhibition will be open on Wednesdays to Sundays until 1 December.

Additional reporting by PA Media.

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