Ice Cloud, Antarctica, 2018

Emma Stibbon RA (b. 1962)

RA Collection: Art

This intaglio print with hand colouring depicts a location in Antarctica, an area that Stibbon has visited on several occasions and which has become and important strand in her work. The artist has described how she made Ice Cloud, Antarctica 'in response to the pristine snowfields and atmospheric effects of the Antarctic Peninsula. I printed the dark mountain and then added watercolour washes to suggest the softer sky and snow areas. I left the paper white to suggest the cloud hanging off the peak'. (https:// www.museums.cam.ac.uk/story/the-big-freeze/)



Regarding her depictions of the Antarctic, Stibbon writes: 'In viewing our natural environment I have long been fascinated by the Polar Regions, in 2013 I was fortunate to have the opportunity to travel to the Antarctic Peninsula as Artist in Residence on HMS Protector. Antarctica is a disorientating landscape with no reference points, almost mirage like. Passing through the strange, ethereal light certainly felt like one was travelling into an internal world. I wanted the work to reflect a feeling of reverie or introspection. I am interested in whether drawing can connect the viewer with the urgencies of our relationship with environment. The evident retreat of glaciers and ice shelves on the Peninsula area are of urgent environmental concern. This is both a landscape under threat but also a powerful force that puts a perspective on our own existence and other species'. (see her interview with the Big Draw https:// www.bigdrawshop.co.uk/blogs/news/interview-with-emma-stibbon- ra )