Old shop, Punta Arenas Chile

Punta Arenas is a mix of solid, established buildings that of the sort that would grace any European city, and more ramshackle affairs that lend a real frontier feel to the place. A lot of tin sheets and peeling timber boards make for a wealth of interesting subjects. This is a small pastel sketch of one of these:

Cuernos del Paine

The Cuernos dominate the view for much of the trek on the classic W circuit in Torres del Paine National Park. The distinctive darker summit rocks make the peaks easily identifiable even when many miles away from the park.
I struggled a bit with this painting getting the tonal values to look right and scrubbed quite a bit of the colour off in the bath, but have got as far as I can with it. Far from one of my best, but I thought I would post it as an interesting subject.

Torres del Paine

From Puerto Natales, I headed up to Torres del Paine National Park for a few days trekking and sketching .   The scenery is truly incredible, and the weather has been really good given the Patagonian reputation for gales lasting weeks. Instead, I've been treated to blue skies and warm temperatures.
This is the classic view of the Torres del Paine, but it's classic for a reason! Half imperial size.

Torres del Paine

I thought I would upload some of the sketches I did on the spot too. As is often the case, despite the difficult working conditions, I find I prefer the immediacy of sketches done on the spot. This is the one I did of the Torres del Paine on which the painting above is based:

Looking the other way from the viewpoint, there is a significant change in the mountains as the granite disappears and lower, more eroded softer rocks give much less spectacular peaks:

Church, Esquel

Not following a strict geographical progression here, but until I photograph the paintings I've done of further south in Patagonia, here is one I did of an attractive church in Esquel, which certainly had a bit of a "wild west" feel about it, being all facade and tin roof and brick behind. It sits opposite the station for the Old Patagonian Express, made famous in Paul Theroux's book. The church had quite an unusual facade, with numerous angles. Esquel has some welsh influence, and nearby are several villages with Welsh names.
Arches rough, 300gsm, 30" x 22"

Patagonia- Puerto Natales

A temporary halt to the South Georgia paintings- I've got a few more in the pipeline but haven't had a chance to work on the ideas recently, so thought I would post some of the Patagonia paintings and sketches I've done.
First one is a painting based on a sketch I did of the shore at Puerto Natales. A windy day (as is the norm here) but warm and sunny, with characteristic lenticular clouds formed over the mountains.

Welcome

Back in 2011, I decided that, as I wasn't getting any younger, I would try to visit some of the places I have always wanted to see, and record my experiences in watercolour.
The southern oceans have always fascinated me, but weren't a place I realistically could see myself visit. help was at hand, however, via the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust.
Each year the trust awards a number of trvelling fellowships, of which I was lucky enough to be one of the recipients.
My aim is to record as much as I can of the disappearing relics of past human habitation via watercolours and sketches. Whilst the places I will be visiting are much-photographed, to capture the atmosphere in paint requires seeing it for yourself.
This blog will be, like the journey itself, only part of the process. From sketches I hope to eventually produce finished artwork, but I never know what sketch will work as a larger painting and which one won't.
On Sunday I fly out to Buenos Aires, then a short ferry over to Montevideo to join the ship for the start of the trip.