Imagine Europa. Viewed from a far this creamy Jovian moon hangs silent in the heavens, her smooth surface marked only by the pink shadows of a million icy fissures. A journey there would take my voice from earshot, dissolved in the gulf of five hundred million miles between my last footprint and the fading memory of home. In a future I would drift content over the horizon, snaking my way on gentle rolling stock across Galileo’s long discovered plains, carrying only a notebook and pen to record harsh landscapes through the dirty window. Like Siberia frozen in dim February light, Europa’s white velvet blanket hides thick permafrost, blended like an old masterpiece, up into the grey atmosphere and then blackened by space. On Earth the view is broken only in part by a seam of birch and aspen and once in a while by a column of burning coke expelled high from a chimney to darken the clouds. There is life here but this alluring railway is nonetheless alien and remote – synonymous with all exotic journeys it offers me challenge and mystery. It is a cultural and geographical experience; an aid to conquer my fears and a quench to my curiosity that once complete adds new dimension and reality to life. For me that is the purpose of travel and it is the enduring memory of my first journey through Siberia.

Hannah Scott was born in Salisbury in 1976 and grew up between Wiltshire and the South of France. She trained as a fine artist and media designer at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design in London and has since worked as a user experience design consultant specialising in web front-end development. She currently works for the BBC in London. View her IT portfolio here.

Hannah has travelled extensively and her paintings are inspired by landscapes throughout Europe, Central Asia, Russia, Siberia, the Far East and America. Her abstract compositions each depict a specific location and attempt to express the essence of the journey. Memories, emotions, sights, sounds – the man-made and naturally occurring patterns of the Earth viewed from an aerial or distant perspective.

All Hannah’s spare time is devoted to painting, photography and travel writing. She has exhibited in Bath, London and Barcelona. Her studio is in Dorset.