 David Bellamy’s Arctic Light An Artist’s Journey in a Frozen Wilderness Published by Search Press www.searchpress.com ISBN 978-1-78221-423-6 Price £25.00/ $35.00 Available from www.searchpress.com David Bellamy is a watercolour artist, author of several books, teacher and, as it turns out, quite an adventurer. Having travelled previously to the Himalayas, Andes and Africa, chillier climes are sought out here.   David recounts this expedition where he travelled to the Scandinavian Arctic in Greenland and Svalbard into Norway and Iceland. For those that read his account of what he saw, did and painted, this book is a perfect way of living life vicariously through the artist. David’s experiences are hilarious, breathtaking and terrifying in equal measure. He balances each out perfectly, taking you from humour to the grim reality of the cold, the danger and physical injuries. His descriptions of the environs are rich with imagery such as the ‘lava-black Icelandic moonscape, surrounded by blackened and distorted lava-demons, statuesque and eerie in the mist’ and poetic: ‘I peered…into light that transformed them into many-coloured jewels, sparkling where sunlight caught sharp edges, incandescent with breathtaking purity’. With descriptions like these, you also travel on a journey lit up by his words.  It is a book of many different experiences of people, places and animals and all are reflected in the beautiful artwork that David Bellamy produces. Many sketches were produced under freezing conditions and it is fascinating to see pictures that were sketched whilst he was hanging from an icy crevasse or paintings where the colour froze as it was applied. Just flicking through to look at each of the pictures in turn, you can only guess the sense of wonder at seeing these places first hand when their interpretations are things of beauty.
This is a book of many things and each sitting brings something new to the reader. An insight into the way of life for the people that live and work in the places David Bellamy has visited, the harshness of life but also a travelogue of one man’s experiences seeing polar bears, walruses, glaciers, volcanos and icebergs. Entertaining, informative and a thing of beauty. What more could we ask for?
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