Svalbard, Arctic Ocean

This scene is an original illustration set in Svalbard, Arctic Ocean. It lies in the polar circle, where the climate is tundra — too cold for trees.

A mother polar bear and one cub stand on a drifting floe. Broken pack ice forms a jigsaw across dark water leads. The light is low and gold although it is nine in the evening, and there is no land in the frame.

Why is a polar bear standing on ice with no shore in sight?

Polar bears hunt seals at the edge of ice, not on land or in open water, so their range is the range of the pack itself — which is why one is standing on drifting ice with no shore in sight. Floes broken into a jigsaw with open leads between them mark the summer melt. Golden light this late at night fixes the latitude far inside the Arctic Circle.

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