I’ve been home in Hoosick, New York for the month of September and have had a chance to look at the Arctic paintings in the luxury of a well-lit, spacious studio instead of a dim, small bedroom. The improved circumstances have led to small changes in the pictures posted below. The title of [...]
Along A Long Line
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Category Archives: Arctic
Mount Duval
In the body of Pavarotti, I opened my eyes. The bedroom was two-storied, made of stone and sparsely furnished with substantial, Baroque furniture. I rose from bed and walked up the steps to the balcony which overlooked a piazza where a crowd had gathered. I opened my mouth and sang with the perfection that comes [...]
Walking Past the Summer Solstice
Every thirteen days darkness takes an hour of light from Pangnirtung. The slide toward the arctic night has started and the change is quick since 24 hours of daylight must be shed before the winter solstice. I’m subtly bothered by the change, like I’ve left the house and forgotten something, but can’t remember what.
Although the [...]
38° and Foggy for 48
For two days the temperature and the sky dropped in Pangnirtung. At first the fog sat on the ground, thick and full of drizzle. Then it lifted a hundred feet and made a line along the mountainsides like the edge of a square-dancer’s skirt. Later, the wind picked up and the fog began [...]
On the Land
In the morning after a sandwich, a chocolate bar, bug spray and 45 pounds of painting gear are packed, I walk up the river gorge behind Pangnirtung looking for something to paint. A shelf of ice, the fold of hills, a cascade of boulders, a gush of water, the color of lichens and the [...]
Virgin Mary Land
I was out on the tundra painting, and marveling at the surface of the land, when a young Inuit man, wearing baggy fatigues and a patterned ‘hoody” appeared behind me and said, “Pangnirtung is Virgin Mary Land”. I jumped. Whether he was reporting a private vision or providing the English translation of Pangnirtung, I [...]
Arctic Pancakes
There is not a metal spatula to be bought in Pangnirtung, which is a problem since I like pancakes. So I am using a rubber spatula, which is inadequate because it is straight, narrow and flexible in order to scrape batter from concavities. A metal spatula, the kind I am missing, is hard and [...]
House 524
Like convicts, the houses in Pangnirtung have numbers. Addresses are not necessary since the streets are unmarked. House 524 is in uptown Pangnirtung, which is separated from downtown Pangnirtung by the landing strip. The house is very near the main road that runs along the fiord and not far from the edge of town, which [...]
Night Walking in Pangnirtung
During the first week in Pangnirtung, my daughter, Lili, and I walked each night in the endless light of the Arctic summer. Photo credit for “Night Walking in Pangnirtung”: Lili Holzer-Glier
First Stop, Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada
Iqaluit can best be described as adolescent. It is energetic but without a plan and cocky and desperate all at once. The guests of the B and B include a Parisian businesswoman, an English architect and a financial consultant from Ireland, who is providing a “strategic growth plan” for a wealthy Inuit family. [...]
