Emma Stibbon: Fire and Ice

The artist Emma Stibbon is fascinated by environments in flux. Her work often explores the impact of natural forces: the shifting tectonic plates, volcanic activity and powerful glaciers that shape and transform the Earth’s surface.

Stibbon has accompanied research expeditions in the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans, lived and worked among volcanoes in Hawai’i, and has made several visits to Stromboli, off the coast of northern Sicily, Iceland and Norway. This book presents the sketches she made during her travels. They have the immediacy that results from an artist working at speed and often in difficult circumstances. Readers will discover the unexpected visual effect of ink that has frozen on contact with the paper.

The book is introduced by the artist who, informed by her discussions with vulcanologists and glaciologists, explains why she is drawn to depict nature’s extremes.