Iceland is notorious for its natural beauty. Every year, countless people flock there to see the rolling hills, wonderful weather (especially to us southerners), and interesting culture of people. Not surprisingly, this natural beauty spills into the country's art. Looking through much of their most prized pieces of art, I'd say 80 or 85% of them consist of or are illustrations of some portion of nature. Being a fairly technologically simple place, many of its citizens find their beauty in the wonders of the Earth. The result is artistic masterpiece.

Interestingly, having listened to much of it myself, these natural, simple elements spill over into the country's music as well. (I relate a lot of things to music. Sorry if it gets annoying. It's what I do) Musical groups like Sigur Ros and the Album Leaf, who both have deep roots in Iceland, deal mainly with similar themes as the artwork we see. They play very beautiful, calm, ambient music, so it's safe for the masses to check out if you want to add a relaxing new musical sound to your collection. In fact, The Album Leaf has a record out entitled "In A Safe Place" in which all of the songs are not only ABOUT nature (and I'm using the word "about" in a musically analytic tone, since most of their works are without vocals), but they are entitled many natural themes. Songs like "Streamside," "Over the Pond," "Thule," and "The Outer Banks" are excellent examples. I cannot reccommend either of these groups enough.

Through this connection, we can now see that Iceland takes much of its artistic influence from one of the most obvious and beautiful sources available to mankind: Nature.