Polar icebergs and North Devon cliffs meet with powerful new art exhibition at The Burton

Art inspired by warming polar regions, the drama of nature and the connections to North Devon landscapes will be explored during an exhibition by Royal Academician Emma Stibbon opening this Saturday (May 10).

Melting Ice | Rising Tides at The Burton at Bideford features a series of monumental large-scale drawings and prints made in response to field trips to Svalbard in the High Arctic and the Weddell Sea in Antarctica.

The centrepiece is a new installation just for the Burton including a five-metre wide drawing which directly responds to sites of erosion and rock falls in Bideford Bay.

This is presented alongside drawings and prints exploring erosion on the North Devon coast, connecting the global and local impacts of climate change.

Included in the exhibition is a film which explores Emma’s research and creative process, featuring contributions from Andy Bell of the North Devon Biosphere, former Green Party leader and MP Caroline Lucas and Dr Dylan Rood, a scientist studying coastal erosion rates in Bideford.

Emma’s work is provoked by the wonder and drama of nature but underpinned by contemporary anxieties about our precarious future.

Often working on location in some of the world’s most isolated regions, she draws environments that are undergoing dynamic change, using the physical materials of sites such as earth pigments, carbon and sea water, including local pigment Bideford Black for this exhibition.

The Burton has launched a new limited edition print to support the exhibition. Atlantic Edge (2025) is part of Emma’s new body of drawings and site-specific work about erosion on the North Devon coast, and shows waves crashing onto the Hartland coastline.

There are 50 works in the edition, priced at £390 (unframed). All profits from the sale of the prints will be used to support the work of the gallery, which is a registered charity.

Above: See more examples of Emma’s work and the background to the polar paintings in the exhibition in this video from the Royal Academy of Arts 

The exhibition will be accompanied by a programme of events and a symposium on art and environment supported by the Paul Mellon Centre for British Art Studies. Taking place on Friday, June 27, it will bring together academics, scientists, artists and local environmental organisations to explore the role of art in climate discussions.

Speaking of her work, Emma said: “Increasingly I believe art has an important role to play in the urgent debates of our time.

“As an artist I feel I'm a witness to what is happening in my lifetime, and the challenge for me is how to render it through my drawings. There is a tenderness to the human touch of drawing that really connects us, it has a directness that speaks in ways that hard science can't.

“Although scientific data clearly demonstrate the impact of dramatic increases in global warming and we can see the effects of this for ourselves, perhaps the artist's more creative methods of communication can engage our emotions to provoke thought and even help to galvanise us into changing our behaviour.”

The exhibition has been organised in collaboration with Towner Eastbourne and Cristea Roberts Gallery.

Melting Ice | Rising Tides runs from May 10 until July 5 at The Burton at Bideford and entry is free. Visit https://www.burtonartgallery.co.uk for more details on the exhibition and accompanying events.