Watercolour artist and author David Bellamy has always loved exploring the world’s wildest places. In his latest book David Bellamy’s Arctic Light he tells the story of several extraordinary expeditions. Here he shares with us, five ways to love the Arctic.
Whether you take your paints to the Arctic, use a camera, tablet or draw with a stick of rhubarb dipped in musk-ox droppings, this is a very special part of our planet, so I have put together a few ideas for active Arctic lovers:
1 The lover of scenery
Reckon the Arctic is just a flat, boring expanse of wet, white wilderness? Think again, as Greenland, Iceland and Norway offer mind-blowing scenery. Svalbard, for example, is littered with stunning Alpine-like peaks of such outstanding beauty that I had to hide many parts of the paintings with low-hanging mist to avoid presenting the viewer with an excessive over-dose of beauty.
2 The wildlife lover
While the Arctic is a truly awesome place for wildlife where the polar bear can present a spectacular performance for those lucky enough to witness their antics, the most accommodating model in the animal kingdom has got to be the walrus. This creature will pose for ages for artist or photographer, without blinking an eyelash, the exciting colours and textures on their bodies often brutally scratched.
Best not to annoy them when they are in the water, though, as at best they will turn their backsides to you and give you a full, smelly broadside, at worst they can smash your Zodiac to pulp if they catch you.
3 The lover of sparkling colour
Painting ice can be a daunting prospect, especially when presented with miles of white landscape, but if you can get into the ice the world changes dramatically. Whether sketching inside an ice-canyon on the Greenland ice-cap, or hanging on a rope down a crevasse, with sunlight shimmering through translucent ice it brings you into a totally new world alive with sparkling light and colour. But make sure you hang on to your 4B pencil. Put plenty of gin in your painting water if you are working with watercolours below zero.
4 The sports lover
Dog-sledging in the winter Arctic brings many new pleasures, dreamlike as you glide serenely over deep snow, or teeth-shattering as you bounce across sastrugi ridges on hard pack-ice, the pencil going everywhere except where you want it to on your sketchpad. While descending steep mountain-slopes you are completely out of control as the sledge overtakes the huskies and flattens them into the snow like a Tom & Jerry cartoon. Amazingly, they bounce back up out of the soft snow as though nothing had happened.
5 The lover of backpacking
For the true wilderness backpacker the beauty, peace and challenge in South Greenland takes some beating. Here you will never feel so free. There are no speed cameras, and few bridges, so wading across wild torrents is part of the fun. In winter most of those are natural ice bridges just waiting to collapse under you. Sketching these phenomena is an exhilarating experience, but when the ground disintegrated beneath me on one occasion it took an almighty leap to escape.
David Bellamy’s Arctic Light: An Artist’s Journey in a Frozen Wilderness £25.00