Thursday 31 January 2013

Stromness

Stromness is one of the larger and best-preserved of the South Georgia whaling stations. In latter years it became a ship repair base, and the foreshore is littered with large propellers , giving the place the atmosphere of Nash's "totesmeer". Unfortunately access is restricted, and there is a 200 metre exclusion zone around the site. I skirted inland around the back, and sketched a view of the graveyard with an incongruous backdrop of rusting oil tanks. Until I find the battery charger for my camera, I'm stuck with posting iPad photos of my paintings, so once again apologies for the poor reproduction. The painting is half imperial size, my favourite size to paint.


The drab grey screes in the background gave the place an even more melancholy atmosphere than usual.

Monday 28 January 2013

Fortuna Bay- a better image

I left the painting over the weekend, and decided that the sky wasn't really dark enough. A mix of burnt sienna and ultramarine on the foremost clouds improved the contrast. The photo is still low-res, but hopefully shows the changes (half imperial, 22x 15"):

Wednesday 16 January 2013

Fortuna Bay

Another magical place, this is where Shackleton and his party first reached the other side of the island after their crossing. An early start, at 5am the skies were still largely clear and I managed a quick sketch before the cloud came in. On landing after breakfast, thick cloud and mist suggested poor painting opportunities, but the sun came out and produced brilliant contrast between snow and rocks. A threatening storm forced us to leave the beach in a hurry, but I had enough information to later finish this half imperial watercolour. Apologies for the very poor quality photograph, but I will try to take some decent quality photos of my work in due course.

Wednesday 9 January 2013

More Ocean Harbour paintings

I've been working on a couple of Ocean Harbour paintings; I particularly like the few rusting relics set against a snowy , desolate landscape with the occasional penguin wandering around. I've completed a full imperial (22 x 30") painting on arches paper of the old steam locomotive, together with a half imperial view of nothing much in particular- I like the snow and rock backdrop as much as any foreground interest here.