The sea is like a moving, liquid steel mountain range. The wind and salt air awaken the senses and ignite that spark to create. When teaching painting I like to focus on 4 aspects or spokes of what I call the vision wheel. First of all is the inspiration, the aesthetic spark, an inner emotional need to communicate something of the heart. The next is the discipline to carry forth with this action. To be successful in this act one must have command of the other two key spokes of the artist wheel, that is that the ability to really see and a confident command of technique. On this journey to Antarctica I will refer to these 4 different aspects of the vision wheel.

Today, in the middle of the Drake Passage and the blasting winds and waves, I am overcome with inspiration to make marks and just respond to the energy and rhymes of the ocean. It is a reckless approach, letting the raindrops stain the page as I work on my half sheet watercolor paper divided into 4 parts. First decision is where shall I place the horizon? Is the dominant subject the sky or the sea?

What creates the horizon is often the light values. Today the violet silver with ochre variations has wonderful transitions from light to dark at the horizon, and the water is dark to light, thus creating a dramatic counterpoint.

When responding to this expressive, moving subject matter, it is easy to get lost or dizzy. To help me keep focused, I locate a vanishing point where all the energy of the marks originate. Then I can sculpt the waves like mountains. Today I started with the sky first; these colors will be used in the water below. The brush, in this case, is an old wolf hair, oriental brush which I drag when very dry across the water to leave the sparkle and whites of the waves below. Winsor &Newton cold pressed 140lb, paper is ideal for this technique, as it has a soft tooth and it’s a very crisp white ideal for suggesting spray. I often use the seabirds that dash and skim along the waves’ crests and valleys as focal landing points. To capture the ruggedness of the ocean, I often use a commercial paint scraper to carve out the dark, wet shapes, revealing the glow and transparency of each wave.

-- David

A View of Sea and Sky in watercolor by David McEown

Another View

David painting in watercolor on a quarter sheet of Winsor&Newton watercolor paper.

Another view of the deck.

More Information:
The earth’s fourth largest ocean, The Southern or South Polar Ocean was formerly called the Antarctic Ocean. To find out how and why The Antarctic Ocean became The Southern Ocean, visit http://geography.about.com/od/learnabouttheearth/a/fifthocean.htm.

For a preview of what David will see on his journey, take a virtual tour of the South Pole by clicking on http://astro.uchicago.edu/cara/vtour/pole/.

To see live camera shots of the South Pole, visit www.cmdl.noaa.gov/obop/spo/livecamera.html.

Because the Antarctic Continent is imperiled by climate change, scientists from around the world have founded the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition, whose mission is “to ensure that the Antarctic Continent, its surrounding islands and the great Southern Ocean survive as the world’s last unspoiled wilderness.” To read more about the ASOC, visit www.ASOC.org/.