In September 2018, Simon Pierse joined the Friends of the Scott Polar Research Institute on an expedition to the arctic regions of West Greenland and Baffin Island. On board the Russian-owned research ship Akademik Sergey Vavilov he made sketches of icebergs, saw the northern lights from the ship’s deck and met the Inuit community of Qikiqtarjuaq.
These paintings in oil and watercolour, prints and photographs are a memory of that experience.
Simon Pierse is Emeritus Senior Lecturer at Aberystwyth University, member of the Royal Watercolour Society, the Australian Watercolour Institute, and Keeper of Pictures at the Alpine Club.
Northern Lights
Shy green
timidly pale at first
but emboldened,
little by little,
to dance in the dark
– as if no-one is watching –
like a torch-waving child
swirling arabesques into the night sky.
Then fading away
until
a silent encore
brings me from my bed
to stand on deck,
pyjama bottoms
dampened by the salty swill,
Gazing upwards
at the inky dancing floor.
Simon Pierse
Aberystwyth University School of Art Museum & Galleries 