It's that time of year again when people and galleries start to ask me about any new releases I might be bringing out during September. I have thought long and hard about it and I want to choose carefully as I know money is tight with a lot of folk at the moment. Whatever print it is to be, I want it to be the one that has been requested the most.

To be honest there hasn't been much debate it has been a done thing for some time now. Some of you may remember the polar bear from my show at Wessex Heartbeat last year, this will be my new release.

I am also aware of the plight of these bears with the current global warming situation. It seems that our biggest land based predator is set for a premature extinction unless the warming of our planet slows down. It seems they must adapt to their changing conditions or a new habitat. Unfortunately it is highly unlikely it will be the first of the two and knowing how successful bears can be, I am almost certain it will be the latter. There is one huge flaw with the plan of adaption, it will probably mean they will conflict and come into close contact with humans with more and more frequency. This alone will be recipe for disaster. If we look at the history between mankind and its ability to share its neighboring surroundings with large unwelcome predators the results are not normally favorable for the animal.
I was deeply moved a few months ago when I saw the sad film of a polar bear swimming through the open ocean in search of an iceberg or a simple place to rest for a while. Due to global warming there was nothing, the seas had warmed and the ice had all gone, he was stranded alone. Exhausted he drowned in an area he would have once have walked and hunted.
I was once told by an expert in the field that polar bears in captivity can be treated and stimulated in a similar way to brown bears. Anyone who has seen a polar bear in a zoo kept like this, will know that they are  often far from white, they take on a stained and dirty appearance from foraging in dirt and leaves. Maybe the ice white coloured bear that currently roams our snow covered northern hemispheres is destined to become nothing more than a romantic memory. I truly hope that they will adapt to a new way of life, if god forbid, our ice caps do disappear forever.
Getting back to my forthcoming release, all I can say is watch this space.

 

'Arctic dreams' limited edition 295 due for release sometime in september.