ART AND SCIENCE

This exhibit is primarily an art exhibit. The individual paintings can be appreciated as works of art that reveal the beauty in nature that has inspired me to paint. Taken together they serve to illustrate the dynamic landscapes where the ice age is still ending. There are groups of paintings that show the changes in the glacial landscapes over the forty years I have been observing the retreating ice. Glaciers surge and retreat rapidly in geological terms, so paintings from my short lifespan show significant changes over time. It might be hundreds if not thousands of years before the Ice Age is truly ended, but I feel very lucky to live in this time when I can still experience and paint icy landscapes. Being limited in my time on earth, and seeing the ongoing changes in the ice, I have always been fascinated by what came before. Some of the paintings in the exhibit, I painted to illustrate what I believe would have been the glaciers were before I was here to observe. These paintings were based on information from historical and scientific texts as well as extrapolation from my own observations. I am an artist, so I do not have to be absolutely exact, but my paintings represent my best effort to describe accurately the ongoing retreat of the ice.

Surprise Glacier

Moondogs

David Rosenthal sketching iceburgs at Columbia Bay in Prince William Sound.
photo by David Janka

David Rosenthal's Artistic Process

David Rosenthal Sketching Ice Bergs at Columbia Glacier.  David has a unique way of documenting what he intends to paint with a  shorthand sketch when out in the field, he then takes the sketch and creates a study or small water color painting first, then paints the larger oil paintings. David does not use photography in his artistic process.