This painting is part of a 5 piece series,‘Lapten’. The name is a reference to the Lapten Sea which is at the edge of the Arctic Circle. It is also referred to as ‘the birthplace of ice’ - because it is traditionally one of the first places that sea ice forms each year.

In environmental terms this is an important function because nutrients are stored in this ice, which will flow deeper into the Arctic through the winter and when it melts in the spring, the nutrients are released - an invaluable part of the arctic ecosystem.

With global heating, the ice is forming later each year, with the obvious threat that it fails to form altogether and bring significant negative impact to the ecosystem. Each of these paintings has a trench form visible at its center. The shape is influenced by a graph released in October of 2020 showing the annual formation of ice in the Lapten sea.