The top of the ice floes is one thing, but when the light changes angle and catches the underneath of the ice, a turquoise glow starts emanating from the water. The pieces of ice turned and spun like pieces of giant jigsaw puzzle, while the ice expanse remained barren and otherworldly, stretching to the horizon due north. This is an enlargement from a painting done on board as our ship hit our ice limit at 82°N.

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.