The artist Emma Stibbon RA 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 in Hawai’i and has made several visits to Norway, Iceland and Stromboli, off the coast of northern Sicily. This book presents the sketches she made during her travels. They have the immediacy of work made at speed using materials to hand, such as volcanic ash, produced in difficult circumstances and often frozen conditions.

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.