Early light, Fortuna Bay

A very early (5 am) start as the ship was anchored in Fortuna Bay. The sky was changing rapidly, with thick mist giving way to patchy sunshine and cloud. I made a couple of quick sketches, and have just finished a half-imperial (21 x14") painting on 300gsm Arches rough paper.
I tried boldness with the sunlit slope colour; at first I didn't like the result, so washed it off and applied more layers.

We were waiting for the ski traverse team to descend to Fortuna Bay, just as Shackleton's crew had done a hundred years earlier.

Reluctant subject, Fortuna Bay

An email from Fio, one of my fellow passengers on the MV Plancius, reminded me of a sketch I did of him taking a photo of a shy penguin. Once again, a poor photo taken with my iPad which I hope to rectify shortly.

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"):

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.

Wildlife everywhere

Early season in South Georgia is meant to be the best time to visit- leave it until midsummer and there are so many fur seals on the beaches that landing becomes impossible. At this time of year, though, there is an astounding amount of wildlife around. Elephant seals dominate the foreshore, but step back from the beach a little and penguins and fur seals take over. Unlike the petrels, Penguins move much more slowly and provide good models:

The top picture of the two above is at Gold Harbour; the lower sketch a brief sunny spell at Fortuna Bay. Dark clouds were building on the horizon, and we were quickly asked to head back to the ship. minutes later we were enveloped in a full-scale blizzard.