Gary says: “I drew this originally for Greenpeace. The
limited editions of other drawings I’d done for them had been so popular with
their members they asked if they could produce a poster on recycled paper to capitalise
on this success. It did well although was not as profitable for them as my
limited editions, so turned out to be a one off.
“As
my popularity escalated in the nineties, I decided to bring this drawing to the
public’s attention again as a larger proportioned fine art print. Because it
had been previously published as a poster, I couldn’t ethically produce a
limited edition of it, so I chose to have it printed as an open edition on the
same superb quality art paper, Fabriano five, as all my L/E prints. To make it
a little more special still, I decided to hand sign each individual print. So
the only differences between Polar Bear swimming and my limited editions is the
lack of a number, the much lower price and the fact I had a grand total of
3,000 printed.
“The
water in this drawing was very important to try and get just right: glassy,
soft and full of shimmering movement. I used tissue paper to really smudge the
pencil strokes right into the paper so there were no hard edges to the ripples.
I also resisted putting too much of my trademark intricate detail on the Polar
bear as I wanted it to look sleek and wet.
“This
drawing was also used by Nature in Art and EIA as Christmas cards in the past.”
