We arrive at Kangerlussuaq (also called Sondre Stromfiord) Airport via a charter flight from Ottawa, Canada. The sunny, warm inland fjord welcomes our group of 85 international passengers who have boarded an icebreaker in order to experience an expedition to Greenland’s remote east coast in an attempt to reach the northernmost land in the world. The warm wind stirs the seedpods of the low lying wildflowers that are now turning gold and alizarin crimson.

The not-knowing-where-the-seeds-will-land is similar to our adventure, which is about discovery. The excitement of new lands found or the unexpected, formidable ice encountered is like flooding a full watercolor sheet before painting!

I will be conducting painting workshops and sharing my own work methods with the group—hoping to enhance my fellow travelers' way of seeing.

Tonight is clear, and the full moon casts spotlights along the open ocean, as we head out of this fjord and into the unknown.

More information:
Greenland, the world's largest island not a continent, is lodged between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans. The Greenland Sea lies east; Baffin Bay lies west. Greenland is a province of Denmark with close ties to Norway.The coastland of Greenland is 39,330 kilometers (24,430 miles) long, approximately the same length as the earth's circumference at the equator. An ice sheet covers 81 percent of Greenland; so heavy is that Greenland ice sheet that its weight has formed a basin that lies 300 meters (984 feet) below the surrounding ocean. The occupants of Greenland speak both Greenlandic and Danish; people live on the coasts, because the coasts are free of ice.

Eric the Red, hero of the Icelandic sagas, discovered Greenland when he was exiled from Iceland for commiting murder; Eric named the land "Greenland" to attract compatriots as settlers. In spite of the vast ice sheet, Greenland has a variety of flora derived from European species. Especially in the summer and the end of summer, Greenland from the air is verdant with mosses and wildflowers. Today the Kapitan Khlebnikov is journeying through a fiord, a long, narrow estuary with steep sides; a fiord forms when a glacial valley is flooded by the sea.

Polar ice is always meltiing, but is it being replaced?  To see photos of glaciers in retreat and to read National Geographic's commentary on global warming in Greenland, visit http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/adventure-travel/greenland/global-warming.html