Pálína

A commission made for an Icelandic woman, Pálína, who has moved to Tenerife and asked for an Icelandic white horse on a beach in Tenerife.

There is a special story behind the request;

Many years ago there was a store in downtown Reykjavik that sold posters. Pálína would walk her young daughter in a stroller past it every day and stop by the window to enjoy a large poster of a beautiful white horse proudly running in the foreground with a few other horses in the background, she loved this poster and to show it to her daughter.

One day just before Christmas the father takes the daughter out and walks past the shop, then the daughter gets excited and shouts “stop, the horse mommy” and points enthusiastically. That Christmas Pálína received the poster as a Christmas present.

Decades later and four more children later Pálínas’ brother came to visit and the poster is still being talked about. After a little discussion he says “Pálína, you are of course the white horse that stands up to the wind, you have never let anything stop you. The other three horses are your siblings and I.

Pálína loved this analogy, but has since gifted the print when she moved to Tenerife, where lives a comfortable life and the white horse is now running on a beach in the sunset in Tenerife in an oil painting on her wall.

The significance is, that her daughter in the story got cancer as an adult and died only 51 years old.
Pálína, who blogs every day about her life in Tenerife, also writes a lot of informative things about life in general. As someone who has practiced zen mastery, the owl symbolizes wisdom and her guide through life.

Oil on canvas, 65x81cm