Christine Bray & Cathy Scott

During their residency at the Buttermaker’s House, Christine Bray and Cathy Scott look forward to connecting with the Markerville community while continuing their work on their collaborative legacy project.  As they deepen their knowledge of their Icelandic heritage, they are weaving together their paintings, prose and poetry into a book format for future publication; to be able to share with their families, friends and future generations.

Both Cathy and Christine plan to be out and about during their week-long residency, looking for inspiration for painting and writing and they welcome anyone interested to bring their pencils or paints and join in or just come along to share in the experience.

On Saturday, June 13, they will be contributing to the Icelandic Independence Day festivities. Cathy will be on the courtyard stage showing her art and leading our group painting project. Christine will guide a poetry writing challenge, plus share a poetry reading as part of the Fjallkona crowning ceremony.

Christine Rolf-Bray
Christine was obsessed with reading and writing poetry as a girl and was further inspired when she was told she was distantly related to a famous Icelandic poet- Stephan G. Stephanson.  As an adult, she made her career as a litigation paralegal, and all creative urges to use rhyme or alliteration were squashed as the job demanded purely factual writing.

She is now retired and has embarked on a journey to connect with her creative side once again. Together with her sister Cathy Scott, they are developing a legacy project about their Icelandic heritage through paintings, poetry and the written word. They hope to engage with the residents and visitors of Markerville during their week-long residency in June with questions and conversations in connection with their project, with a long-term goal of publishing their completed work. 

Cathy Scott
My Happy Place...is painting and drawing anywhere/anytime, especially when accompanied by a like-minded group of artists on a plein air painting adventure. I am passionate about the process and power of making meaningful art! Seeing and experiencing the world through artist’s eyes is truly a blessing!

As great grand daughters of the Jon Benediktsson/Olafsson and Lara Strong/Jonnson families of Markerville and Iceland, my sister Christine Bray, and I are very honored and excited to be taking part in the Buttermaker’s House Residency, as we continue our search for information and understanding of our Icelandic heritage. It is our goal to create and present a cohesive and personal legacy project through our paintings, prose and poetry. We hope to explore our connections to place and people while staying in Markerville June 11 – 17 and share our works-in-progress, when possible, with those who are interested. I can also offer an impromptu plein air painting demo if desired.

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