A FORMER maths teacher, turned award winning artist, has returned to his home town of Andover to exhibit work from his “life changing” adventure to the Antarctic.

Darren Rees will display a range of paintings and sketches, completed during a month long tour of the frozen peninsula, in a gallery held at Andover Museum from tomorrow.

The display contains a mixture of scenic and wildlife paintings all either drawn during or inspired by his time on the Royal Navy’s ice-breaker, HMS Protector.

The former Cricklade College teacher, who gave up education for a career in art and wildlife, spent five weeks on the ship between February and March 2015.

He was given the opportunity after winning an Artists in Residency honour from the Friends of the Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge University.

The 56-year-old said: “As well as painting I also did wildlife tours and I’d completed several in the Arctic.

“The work I did while I was there I think secured me the job.

“They wanted to find someone who was well suited to working in the extremes.

“It was an amazing opportunity.”

Mr Rees was initially flown out to the Falklands Islands where he boarded HMS Protector.

From there, he spent much of his time observing the stunning scenery from the ship’s crow’s nest as they travelled through Drake Passage and into the Antarctic peninsula.

The father-of-two visited various places during the five week adventure including Port Lockroy, Horseshoe Island and Rothera Research Station.

During the trip, he worked with various animals, and achieved his “lifelong dream” of painting a King Penguin.

He finally left the ship on March 30, at Rio De Janeiro.

Talking about the trip, he said: “It was a life changing adventure.

I’ve always been fascinated by the Arctic so to see the Antarctic, which is this amazing wild frontier with large open landscapes.

“It makes you feel insignificant in a way.

“It was a humbling experience.”

After returning home, Mr Rees, who now lives with his wife and two children in Scotland, decided to compile his work into a “facsimile sketchbook”, named Ice Bound.

The book was launched alongside the exhibition at the Polar Museum in Cambridge in February this year.

However Mr Rees, who was born in Andover, said he also wanted to have his display shown in his home town.

He said: “I always wanted to have the display here in Andover.

“When the collection closed in Cambridge I asked Andover Museum if they’d be interested in having it here and they said they would.

“It’s great for me as I have lots of family and friends here still and it’s nice to let people see what I’ve been getting up to.”

Mr Rees’s exhibition will be on display at Andover Museum from Saturday, July 1 until Saturday, August 12.