Thursday, January 8. 2009
Still Today, Artists Labor to Capture Arctic's Brilliant Light
Past Traveller Linda Matchan has recently written an article which in part, reflects on our High Arctic Adventure Expedition 2008.
Linda writes:
When I returned from a recent two-week trip to the Arctic, a lot of people asked me to describe the landscape.
I tried, but was somehow never able to give them the sound bite I wanted to deliver. The word "beautiful" hardly did it justice. Neither did "awesome" or "jaw-dropping," "glorious" or "breathtaking."
So when I went to see the new exhibition at the Peabody Essex Museum called "To the Ends of the Earth, Painting the Polar Landscape," I was
fascinated to see artists wrestling with the same kind of challenges.
The exhibition features 17 artists who journeyed to the Arctic and Antarctic in the 19th and 20th centuries to satisfy their muse. One of them was David Abbey Paige, a commercial artist who grew up in Fitchburg and managed to land a gig in 1933 as the official artist for explorer Richard Byrd's second expedition to the Antarctic.
One evening, we learn in the show, Byrd asked Paige to paint a particularly impressive twilight scene. Paige politely declined. "I could paint it, alright, but what's the use?" Paige replied, according to Byrd's diary. "Nobody would believe it. Whoever saw a sky like that? How can you describe a sea that's like no sea ever was or will be again?"
To read the rest of Linda's article please click here.
Come experience the wonder and art of the Arctic on our Heart of the Arctic Adventure, September 16th-26th, 2009. For more information please click here.
To find out more about our High Arctic Adventure, August 9th-21st, 2009 please click here.
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