Elephant seals, ocean harbour

A different view of Ocean Harbour,this time, looking over the gray sand spit. I'm not entirely happy with the elephant seal representation, but it is the first attempt at a group of them so I will persevere with this; it's hard to get a view on South Georgia without a group of them in the foreground.

Random sketches, Ocean Harbour

Until I get some more finished works to show, I just thought I would upload a page from the sketchbook- various quick studies of penguins and the odd piece of rusting ironmongery that is such a feature of the place. Again, hardly finished pieces, but I always like the immediacy of field sketches however basic.

Ocean Harbour- the Bayard

A quick sketch of SS Bayard, with elephant seal and whale vertebrae in the foreground. Very quickly done due to the onset of rain, and i'm not happy with how the elephant seal looks. I guess that is in the nature of elephant seals though, their facial appearance changes a lot depending on how squashed their nose is when they are lying down.
The Bayard, incidentally was built in Liverpool and wrecked here when it broke loose from its moorings on the other side of the harbour in a gale.

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.

Leaving ocean Harbour

Ocean Harbour is a very impressive safe haven, accessed by a narrow entrance leading into a (relatively) sheltered bay. I say relatively sheltered, because the inner bay is dominated by the wrecked Bayard, A three-masted ship built in Liverpool. This was moored on the other side of the harbour, when it broke loose from its moorings in a gale, drifted across the bay, and was wrecked on the rocks where it now lies.
Not much remains of the whaling station here, but it is nonetheless a very atmospheric place. I managed a very quick sketch of the Bayard before the rain set in heavily. Elsewhere, there is a steam locomotive, which excited Hergen, a German passenger, bits of track, and a lonely hut. A group of penguins stood near a few poles, all that remains of some indeterminate structure, made a good subject which I hope to paint in the studio.
On the way out of Ocean Harbour, I did a quick painting of the rocky headland. I used coloured paper with quite a rough texture. It was interesting trying to capture snow and sea highlights -the whites- using this colour paper. Tones are all relative, and in the end the contrast between the bare paper and the dark indigo line of sea below the cliffs gave enough contrast to suggest breaking waves. The background peak was done with a fairly thin wash of body colour, to suggest distance.
The painting lacks foreground interest, but I don't want to ruin it with some black flecks suggesting birds. I may do a larger scale bird painting using this as a background which would be more compositionally satisfying  for me.

The paper, not being stretched, has cockled quite a bit, as you can see in the photograph. A bit of pressing should resolve this.