Inspired by the linocuts of Clifford Webb, Stormborn came about following a chance encounter with a grey seal pup one chilly December day. Grey seals pup here in the winter. The mother seal hauls herself out of the water onto the rocks and finds a sheltered spot to give birth, then returns to the water to hunt, coming back often to feed her pup, who is covered in a coat of white fluffy non-waterproof fur for warmth. The mother must get as much fat on her pup as possible in a very short space of time in order to give it the best chance of survival. After a couple of weeks she goes back to the sea for the final time and the pup must be strong enough to survive until it has shed its fur coat so it can also go to sea at last. Stormborn is a record of those first, busy days of a seal pup’s life: feeding as much as possible to lay down the fat reserves it needs to make it to the water once its fur has been shed.