The capital of Iceland is very walkable and sketchable.

From my apartment, a few blocks from the Hallgrimskirkja, I could easily explore Reykjavik on foot with my sketching kit in my pack. I kept my sketchbooks, paint palette, and Escoda travel brushes in a Sea to Summit dry bag, rain and watercolor doesn’t always go well together.

In this post I had included a few of my sketches I did on my Reykjavik walk-abouts.

The featured sketch is the music venue Harpa, which I sketched from the hill at Arnarhóll. Harpa is the most important musical venue in Iceland. This is the home of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and the Reykjavik Big Band. The modernistic music hall was designed by Olafur Eliasson and Harpa helped revitalized the harbor area.

Iceland does not have a great public transportation system. Buses can take you places but you really need a car to get around. The country has no rail but in 1919 the locomotive Minor was the apex of Icelandic rail. She is a diminutive 0-4-0 and is now on display in the Old Harbor, so I had to sketch it. I added steam rising from the stack which is purely artist whimsy.

I have always loved sketching statues because they don’t move and they really tell you about the values and culture of a nation. So I sketched the Iceland’s first settler, Ingolfor Arnarson sculpted by Einar Jonsson. Arnarson noticed steam rising from the area’s hot springs and gave name to Reykjavik meaning “Smoke Cove”.