I love this picture. It’s of seismologist, Frank A. Perret listening to the Solfatara Volcano in Italy in 1917 and it’s from the title page of the 2011 Folio edition of Richard Fortey’s, The Earth: An Intimate History.

Keeping my head stock still, I dart my eyes from left to right, wondering if I do it quickly enough, I might trick them into focusing on more of the horizon than I can actually see. It doesn’t work.

“Formed by standing surface water acidic enough to dissolve surrounding rock into clay, mudpots have a similar structure to hot springs, but with a lower water supply…”

My upcoming exhibition, Touching Ice will showcase work completed since returning from Antarctica as Artist in Residence for The Friends of The Scott Polar Research Institute.

When you return from Antarctica I think there is an understandable, natural urge as an artist to ‘go big’ - to try and relay the incredible sense of scale that you witness when you’re there. I have battled with this over the past year.