Sanctuary - Philotera Art and Photography

The idea of sanctuary is as old as humanity. We have always had places where a person could find refuge. Temples, churches, groves, caves. Somewhere touched by the sacred. Somewhere outside of the world, where you could rest, at least for a while.

Whether we are religious or not, the spiritual remains. I think it’s written in our bones that we need sacred, safe places, even if we no longer believe in the gods of our childhood. The world has become too busy, too loud, too bright, and dangerous in so many ways. Humanity has an outsized footprint. Where can we escape from ourselves, to ourself?

These paintings depict not only my quest for sanctuary here in the Arctic, but I see it as a place of refuge for everyone. I believe humanity needs a place where we can feel “right-sized” in regard to nature. I hope these paintings give a sense of the enormity of nature, and our need for it.

Serenity3 meters by 1.47 meters acrylic on canvas Confronted with the enormous face of a glacier at first one sees only white, but on longer observance the different shades of blue and all the cracks, crevices and multiple layers of ice become apparent. Like a cathedral carved by millenia, glaciers impose a sense of serenity and eternity.

Painting of the interior of an ice cave revealing the hidden deptsh of ice, icicles, and distant dark blue narrow channels.

Heart of Ice3 meters by 1.47 meters acrylic on canvas The interior of an ice cave is an sight that is hard to comprehend. The colors and glittering diamonds of ice bewilder the eye. Created by summer melt water, the caves can expand into multiple channels decorated by hanging icicles and frost flowers, with ever more distant blue entries inviting exploration. No cathedral is as beautiful carved and decorated as these caves.

Painting of a glacier front illuminated by the sun

Svalbard Spring3.5 meters by 1.47 meters acrylic on canvas As the sun returns in mid February the first rays streak through the valleys to briefly light the Arctic landscape. The unearthly glow on the shadowed winter blue glaciers can be shocking to the eyes, and is also a moment of great joy and hope.

Painting in dark blues and light blues with a looming black moon over the top of a glacier during the dark season.

Dark MoonRepresenting a glacier front in winter when the snow has smoothed out the glacier's jagged edges and disguised its crevices. The moon also is dark representing what can feel like the unending night of the soul. Sold.

$Painting of a glacier in the cold of dark season fracturing and compressing internal as the northern ights flicker overhead.$

FracturingAcrylic on canvas. Painted for a documentary on Svalbard, "First Light". The intense Arctic cold affects glaciers in different ways, and while they appear immobile, deep inside there is movement and contraction that audio equipment can capture. This image represents the splitting and fracturing that happens to glaciers even during the cold of dark season. The time of year is represented in the flickering northern lights above the glacier.

painting of a mountain with a broken silver moon rising behind it and a line of northern lights above

Hunger MoonAcrylic and gold leaf on canvas The February moon is known as the hunger moon referencing the time at the end of winter as food becomes difficult to find and in the Arctic, reindeer may stop eating or forage for less than ideal foodstuffs. This painting represents the difficulty of this time just before spring, and also its strange beauty.

Painting of the January full moon, the wolf moon, rising over a snow-softened glacier front.

Wolf Moon2m x 1m acrylic and silver leaf on canvas. The January full moon is the wolf moon. A time when everything seems a little sharper. Snow is blanketing the glaciers, smoothing their rough edges and the sky is dark, allowing the milky way to dance across the horizon. The process of painting this image was filmed for the documentary "First Light" by Blue Hour Labs and was released in 2024. Artist's collection.

Painting of a white glacier with a deep blue ice cave at the bottom

The ice cave4.5 meters by 1.47 meters, acrylic on canvas This image was created to express the wonder of discovery. What it's like to travel across the whiteness of a glacier and discover the intense lip of blue that indicates an ice cave into the glacier's heart. This image was used as a label for the Svalbard brand of sparkling wine, Svalbard Båbler.

painting in white, blues, and splashes of red indicating the white surface of glacier dabbled with blood.

Life and Death at the Glacier's Edge60 x 90 cm acrylic on canvas Glaciers are a place where life and death meet. Many animals, birds, and fish live at the glaciers age, feasting on the churning of micro life as the glaciers calve. But where there is life, there's also death. Birds feast on fish and each other. Seals come for the fish, and the polar bear, comes to eat anything she can catch.