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.

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.

Glacier, king Haakon Bay

A Zodiac cruise along the snout of the glacier at the head of King Haakon Bay gave me a chance to sketch the basic forms; it took a bit of experimentation to try to capture the intense blue-greens that appear to emanate from a light source within the glacier itself. a first try, I'm keen to return to this subject and play around a bit more with the colours. This was a fairly clean glacier, but others have various bands of earth colours running through them. I'm not sure of the origin of these bands, any glaciologist reading this is welcome to provide an explanation.
On arches 300gsm rough paper again, 22x15"

Peggotty Bluff, King Haakon Bay

A cold overcast morning gave way to brilliant sunshine and the view from the Zodiacs returning to the ship was magnificent. Peggotty Bluff is where Shackleton's party landed after resting at Cave Cove, and some of them began the trek over the island to Stromness. The route taken was, if I recall correctly, to the left of the prominent peak. I can't find a name for this on the map, which reflects the sheer number of impressive mountains South Georgia has.

Arches rough 300gsm, 22x15"

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.