King's bay is where several glaciers flow out into the water, offering us our first series of icebergs. The challenge of painting in the arctic in the summer, is the eternal sun, which never sets. As a painter, my outdoor schedule is dictated by the light. However, in the Arctic I needed to consciously time myself as I painted, to not go too long. It is important not to overpaint your subject, and a time constraint can help focus you. This piece is an enlargement from an onsite plein air painting.

Fascinated by the natural world from an early age, Toby WRIGHT spent much of his early years drawing in Monaco’s oceanographic museum, where he also was inspired by paintings hanging on the walls from arctic expeditions from early 1900’s. In particular, the painter Louis Tinayre was an expedition painter for the explorer Prince Albert 1st of Monaco. Over 100 years later, Toby WRIGHT found himself drawing and painting in the same locations involved in awareness campaigns highlighting the precious nature of our polar regions. Since that time, he has pursued expedition painting into other extreme locations: Antarctic, Alps, Himalayas, to bring the experience of raw nature to a public far removed from it.