The Artist's Magazine - David McEown Painting at the End of the Earth

Ice and Light

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 04:04:12 GMT

Light is symbolic for me as the force that animates and gives life to all forms. In watercolor the light bounces off the white of the paper and back through the glowing pigment molecules that form the storied veils of washes—some transparent, others more cloudy. This light never lets up, as 4:49 am sunrise tugs me from sleep, even this late in the season. The ship drifts quietly and a foggy overcast and snow flurries blow in, like a soft blanket, which feels like a good excuse to sleep in a bit; however, before I close my eyes a cool white light starts to reflect off the ceiling and fills the room to accompany the sound of waves lapping at a shoreline. Out the porthole a massive Pantheon shaped iceberg is forming out of the fog.

We have stopped here in Franz Joseph Fjord, Greenland, and will take the opportunity to zodiac cruise around several fantastic icebergs. This is a major fjord connecting to an extensive system of subsidiary and tributary fjords. The fjord extends for over 160 km and Katabatic winds keep it often ice free in summer except for displays of grounded icebergs such as these. A few sketches are all I have time for, as we are circling the variety of shaped icebergs: from pinnacle, wedged, domed, tabular, and a double, towered with its own featured turquoise bay (these bergs are called drydocks). Most mysterious to view and paint are the blue caves. If an iceberg calves off or rolls over, revealing fresh ice, it often appears with incredible variety of blues. This ice is very old and dense; thus, it has very little oxygen in it, so that only the blue light waves are seen. Later as the ice is exposed to air, the rest of the light waves scatter and mix as white light. To capture the height of these bergs, I prefer to be lower deck to have the perspective of looking up. To make the blues glow, I often work in wet in wet sections, starting with an underpainting with light Winsor violet, scarlet lake, with a touch of aureolin yellow. Into this wash of very transparent colors, I drop a more semi-opaque turquoise blue and often use Holbien’s horizon blue. These are very cool, sometimes greenish blues; however, the darkest blues sometimes will include French ultramarine mixed with Winsor violet. What makes the iceberg painting work, however, is the background or negative shapes and some evidence of scale. Attention to the waterline and the size of waves or water undulations can create that sense of space.

Iceberg cave and zodiac. Photo by Daisy Gilardini

Inspired by the Arctic Landscape

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 19:02:19 GMT

Painting a view of the massive Wordie Glacier, Greenland (photo be Daisy Gilardini)

Still glass waters mirror the steep fjord walls, creating a fantasy of totemic, metamorphic shapes. The ship's wake breaks and distorts the diorama and reveals a temporary thin, flexible film of ice that will melt into the black water, for this will be another sunny day in the Arctic.

Today’s expedition will explore Godthåb Golf, which is an extensive stretch of inland sea entered through Gael Hamkes Bugt in northeast Greenland. The vast Wordie Glacier empties into it, as well as wrapping around it—like a collar around several fantastic mountain shapes called nunataks http://www.coolantarctica.com/gallery/scenic/mountains2/peaks_ice_and_nunataks.htm that rise upward through it. Expecting a charted tidewater glacier, we instead find it has receded back several hundred meters—revealing melt water braided channels that draw designs in the tan glacial silt. Endless inspiration is stirred from such raw and primal forces sculpting the land.

I remember as a young kid being on a field trip to The McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinberg Ontario, very close to where I live. The paintings were strange and supernatural, but what I remember was a very old man with a timeless, contented glow. As a founding member of the famous Canadian collective of painters called The Group of Seven
A. Y. Jackson was still alive and a resident artist there. In the 1920’s the Group of Seven traveled and painted on site in the wilderness—creating a distinctive and influential style.

A.Y. Jackson was one of first to head to and paint the High Arctic in 1927, when he traveled aboard the supply ship the Beothic. Later he took along another member of the Group, Lawren Harris, whose iconic, transcendent mountain paintings evoke a spiritual and meditative reflection that, like this landscape, can refresh the soul. When trying to paint today, I cannot help but feel the Group’s influence, but also the weight of trying to find my own way of expressing this landscape.

Feelings of transcendence this morning are now giving way to the breeze of anxiety, for it's time to get some work done. First rule of creativity, as a photographer friend says, is to “be there”.
In the painting Godthab Golf, Greenland, the format is again 8x22 inches, a half sheet divided the long way. I again start painting on the moving ship; a light drawing helps define a few key features. In this case, I paint the main mountain first and take notes on the reflections, which will look totally different by the time I get to work on them.

I'll use a full palette today; my portable white plastic watercolor palette has a folding lid, at least 3 mixing wells, and a thumbhole. It has about 15 small watercolor pans for which I'll refresh the semi-moist cakes. From left to right, the colors are Winsor&Newton artist quality watercolors, although there are a few exceptions that I note with brackets: French Ultramarine, Winsor Violet, Quinarcidone Violet (Stevenson), Permanent Rose, Scarlet Lake, Cadmium Red Light, Aureolin Yellow, Cadmium Lemon Yellow (Stevenson), Perylene Green, Horizon Blue (Holbein), Turquoise blue (Holbein), Cerulean Blue red shade, Winsor Blue green shade.

My most used brush is an old Chinese wolf hair brush (equivalent to a Number 10). It does not hold a lot of water, so I can snap off excess water with ease and avoid blooms; its organic marks are less predictable than the fine sables I have. I use the fine sables if I have to do delicate glazing. What I also use on large washes is a 1-inch flat sable brush.

The afternoon expedition will be by helicopter; it will take us high up into some lakes along the Wordie Glacier. The vantage point is stunning and again requires a panoramic format. It's hard not to find a good view, but I choose a rock for a comfortable bench overlooking the immense glacial plain. While setting up, I'm captivated by the creaking and groaning of the ice. Anticipating a calving, I thus have the camera ready. All is well into the painting until I realize my paint pans are freezing.This dry cold is deceptive; it must be now well below freezing. Not wanting to ruin the good start to the painting that will be Wordie Glacier, Eastern Greenland, I tape a chemical hand warmer to the back of the palette and add a few tablespoons of glycerin (from the drug store) in one pan, and some ox gall in another. As I make a wash of color I just dab a bit from the 2 mediums, as I see fit. The glycerin seems to keep the paint flexible, although it takes longer to dry, and the oxgall helps the paint flow. Sometime I use alcohol, but it evaporates very fast and dries out the brushes; however, it can create neat textures for rocks. Other additives such as glycol could work, but there is a restriction as what to take on airline baggage.

The palette is warm, but I need to move to create some body heat after being motionless in below freezing temps for a few hours. I grab the camera and head down to the toe of the glacier before the light is obscured by the creeping afternoon shadows. While studying up close the towering ice face that I have painted from above, the creaking grows louder until 4 successive ice slabs crash down. I take pictures rapid fire with the camera, capturing the calving event. A mini tsunami caused by the falling ice echoes through the whole lake. The ice will melt into the sea and appear again for painters of the future to capture in the precipitous clouds.

More information:
An historical note: Immediately to the south of Godthåb Golf is "Hold with Hope" a prominent group of mountains named in 1607 by Henry Hudson. )

A tidewater glacier is one that flows from mountains into the ocean; a glacier is said to "calve" when part of it breaks off. To read more about glaciers, visit
http://www.nps.gov/glba/naturescience/glaciers.htm

Painting from the flydeck while entering Godthab Golf, Greenland

Godthab Golf, Greenland (watercolor 8x22)

Painting late afternoon light above the Wordie Glacier (photo by Daisy Gilardini)

David McEown's set-up at Wordie Glacier, Eastern Greenland

Wordie Glacier, Eastern Greenland (watercolor 8x12)

Calving Wordie Glacier (photo by David McEown)

Painting with Watercolor in the Arctic

Fri, 21 Sep 2007 13:38:36 GMT

Flade Isblink Peninsula is the easternmost point of land in Greenland. Our goal is to reach the northernmost point of land, but ice charts show ominous, multiyear ice along the north and down the east coast. With the limited time given for this expedition, the risk of being trapped
gives way to a desire to explore the rarely seen northeastern fjords. We now drift by in 10/10ths
ice cover. The satellite Polar Ice Charts are nature’s grand paintings; the charts' huge jagged shapes and patterns are an inspiration. In his briefing this morning, the Captain said that it's not the ice he looks for but the winds and currents. If the forces are not in our favor, the winds will pinch the icebreaker, and it will have nowhere to move. The ice thus slow our progress.

Understanding the underlying forces in painting also can influence decisions to avoid being stuck or sunk by dreaded blooms or unwanted backwashes! In painting with watercolor, especially on dry paper, the force of gravity influences the direction of which way the wash will run or the bead will hang. Working on site in this colder climate, I like my paper at fairly steep angle, maybe 45–70 degrees, because I then have control in knowing the bead will always flow down. Painting at this angle will also help me avoid puddles. Pools of standing water can freeze over, or just not dry, in the time I have to paint on site. Also by having paint always draining to the bottom of the paper, I avoid excess buckling of the paper. Nonetheless, it's always important to soak up the gathering water at the bottom to avoid its creeping back up and destroying the bottom part of the painting.

I use a Masonite board that attaches to a photo tripod. I can thus change the angle of the board and can paint standing or sitting. With bull dog clips I attach my homemade folder, made out of plastic corrugate (neutral grey in color). The folder is 16 x 22 inches, so I can put several half sheets inside. Without having to pre-stretch the sheet of 140-lb. Winsor & Newton cold-pressed paper, I secure it on the outside of the folder, again with clips. If I use tape to subdivide a sheet or create clean borders, it's best to pre-tape indoors where it's warm. Tape will not come of the roll without tearing when it gets really cold. As for water—I hang a collapsible water container on one of the clips.

At Flade Isblink Peninsula, the easternmost point of land in Greenland, the farthest north we will achieve on this journey, 80°54.5’N, 13°58.5’W, it's snowing horizontally, but it's balmy for this place, just at the freezing point! Nonetheless, the wind chill makes it painful on the fingertips. In this case, I place the easel into the wind and lean it against the backpack (which can fit my painting folder). I place the painting inside the folder but keep it open with a clip to create a snow deflector.

Snow, sleet, dust and jacket sleeve all still get into the painting, which makes it all the more valuable as and record of the whole experience! On this 15x22-inch sheet, the paint is not quite dry, nor is the painting finished before we have to pack up and head back to the ship. Sometime I will use spacers like twigs or, in these extreme environments, flat stones to prevent the painting from being blotted when stuck into a folder. However, in this case, packing the wet painting, which is mostly of rocks, creates an interesting effect. When I place the painting on a clean sheet and peel it apart later in the thawing-out process, I like the variations that have occurred.

Of historical note, on September 6, 1909, Robert Edwin Peary transmitted the news that he had reached the North Pole with Matthew Henson and an Eskimo sledgeparty on 6 April 1909. One of the Eskimos was named Oodaq, which became the name of the northernmost island on Earth.

More information:
Geographers adjust their concepts just as mapmakers react to changing conditions when they revise maps. To read about the changing topography of Greenland, visit http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/16/news/warm.php
Scientists are reporting a severe retreat of Arctic ice; see the report in the New York Times at
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/21/science/21arctic.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1190388862-tykhgBNWp7pn7XikMzqhOg

Flade Isblink Peninsula, Greenland (watercolor, 15x22)

Painting at the farthest north, Flade Isblink Peninsula (Photo by Daisy Gilardini)

Easel and snow-shield-painting-set-up, Flad Isblink Peninsula, Greenland
(Photo by David Mceown)

Northbound to the Ice Edge

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 19:45:33 GMT

As the Kapitan Khelbnikov reaches top speed, we plow northbound to the ice edge. I give
the eager passengers the next workshop on “shape seeing.” We are treated to the Northern Lights in the evening, as we make are way to Scoresby Sund for an early morning supply stop. Sunrise is 3:32 am; sunsets at 6:24 pm. Some daylight has vanished as we head north, but the sun is lower in the sky, making for great light and shadows.

David McEown painting at Scoresby Sund (photo by Daisy Gilardini)

Scoresby Sund (watercolor, 8x22) by David McEown

More information:
Greenland is one of the best places in the world to see Aurora Borealis or the Northern Lights, a phenomenon caused by the collision between particles electrically charged by the sun and atoms in the earth's atmosphere. The Inuit people believed that when the Northern Lights were dancing in the sky, the dead were playing football with a walrus skull.

Charted by William Scoresby in 1822, Scoresby Sund is the longest fjord in the world and one of the deepest. A fjord is a long, narrow estuary with steep sides, made when a glacial valley is flooded by the sea.

Ammassalik (Tasiilaq)

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 17:44:47 GMT

We visit the colourful village of Ammassalik. There are very few towns along the isolated east coast, which is vastly different in climate and culture from that of western Greenland. Since we'll only be onshore for four hours, I have a good walk around town and up to the cairn overlooking the town. A potential painting place, but light is flat and I am always curious to see what's up in the valley. Late wildflowers seduce me to stay up in the warm hills until the hordes of flies eliminate the desire to undo the paint kit. Chased by the biting hordes, I head back to the breezy, cool lookout and find a composition of a few coloured houses juxtapositioned by a large grounded iceberg. Drawing is all I have time for with the HB pencil, with notations on light direction, values, and hues, then it's time to pack before a large cruise ship comes ashore with 500 people.This will be our last look at a town before setting sail for the northernmost point of land in the world. The ice charts show very thick ice, 10/10ths coverage in our path. We therefore plan to head east farther out to sea and follow the ice edge north, before cutting back into the ice pack. Our days at sea will allow time for some workshops, of which out of the 90 passengers, 15 are very keen on painting and thus make the lounge a hive of creativity.

Into the jaws of ice! The ice chart reveals a 10 out of 10 degree of coverage of ice,
represented by the red pink color.

The Kapitan Khlebnikov plows its way through sea ice.

More information:

Around 877 AD, 1170 years ago, Gunnbjörn Ulfsson made a voyage from Iceland and was blown off
course. Driven to the west, he encountered new land on the east coast of Greenland, probably near
what is now known as Gunnbjornarsker, close to Ammassalik. The highest peak of Greenland, and the highest peak in the Arctic, is named Gunnbjørn Fjæld (3693 meters) after this pioneering explorer.

Painting onboard a Moving Ship

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 12:52:56 GMT

We again awake to the common fogs and calm, silver waters that reflect mirror images of the low flying seabirds. I prepare the outdoor painting kit, as we anticipate entering the Prins Christian Sund. This spectacular, often ice-choked, channel is a shortcut around the southern tip of Greenland; the Sund displays jagged peaks that rise 1600 to 1800 meters from the ocean. I place the easel and tools at the bow of the now sun-filled ship. As we enter the channel, the fog lifts. Thus starts the first challenge for the painter, which is the torture of deciding: should I just take photographs of this moving landscape for reference as the ship passes through the channel, or should I try to pull off a few short sketches? Doing both would be the answer in this case. I do shoot reference material with a digital SLR; these reference photos will come in handy, because I can review the shapes later inside on the display board, if I need to resolve some painting problems or start a new painting.

Painting, however, is why I am here, and experience has taught me that for painting on a moving ship through a tight channel, I’ll do a very simple light pencil drawing, focusing on compositions that I can catch sight of farther ahead. By the time I’m ready to paint it, we are much closer. If it has not already gone past, I will divide my half sheet (15 x22) in half with painter’s tape so that I can have two paintings on the go at once. Thus, while I am waiting for a layer to dry, I can start another. Often it helps to work off the fly deck, where I can have a 360-degree view.

It seems as if I often find better compositions behind the ship. Whenever I engage in discussions with photographers onboard, we always hit on the subject of truthfulness. Are we trying to record one split second in time or are we trying to express the whole experience? For me a painting from a moving ship is a response to the many different features and angles we encounter over time and we weave together—with feeling and memory—from our experience as artists. This compression of time and space expressed through the artist’s hand and placed on paper results in a truthful piece of art.

However, the captain does play tricks with my overconfidence, as we navigate through this archipelago. More than once have I started to compose some scene in one direction, while he turns the ship in the opposite—obliterating the view. After exchanging a few “friendly” gestures directed toward the bridge, I resort to the camera for another reference shot and await the next corner.

Peaks of Prins Christian Sund (Photo by Daisy Gilardini)

Prins Christian Sund, Greenland #3 (watercolor, 11x15) by David McEown

Last Entry for Journey to Antarctica 2006

Fri, 15 Dec 2006 19:27:34 GMT

Today we anchor off Enderby Island, part of the Auckland Island chain. All of the five islands comprising New Zealand's Sub Antarctic Islands are National Nature Reserves and therefore strictly protected. We surf our zodiacs into the rolling swells to a landing beach where there is a small research station and view one of the few major Hooker's sea lion colonies in the world. Hooker's sea lions are aggressive animals; they can charge very fast, as a few of our photographers found out. Because of this and the extremely strong winds on the plateau, I chose to paint in an intimate, tangled rata forest near the beach.

Painting the Rata Forest of Enderby Island 11:00 am. (photo by Daisy Gilardini)

Rata Forest, Enderby Island (watercolor, 10 x15)

I hope to catch a glimpse of the very shy yellow-eyed penguin, a solitary nester that is considered to be the world's most endangered penguin. It breeds on Enderby. We'd already seen 2 yellow-eyed penguins as we landed.

Yellow-eyed Penguins (photo by Daisy Gilardini)

The canopy of the rata forest acts as a shelter from the constant fine rain, although some does fall in the wet paint, creating the feel and texture of moss. One has to be careful of the songbirds, as they have dropped more than just rain on my painting! I left an empty spot in the composition just in case a yellow eyed penguin walks through the forest.

Drawing the limbs and mosses of this wind sculpted oasis takes me back full circle to 20 years ago when I first studied watercolor at the Ontario College of Art and Design with the master Chin Kok Tan. I was looking for a medium that was light and transparent and would help me interpret the light or force that animates this beautiful planet.

The Polar Regions are the last great wilderness and have many secrets to reveal. The regions are a place of immense space. If one is fortunate enough to experience that space, he can witness the movements of his own mind.

More information
To see more pictures of Enderby Island, including views of the rata forest and megaherbs, visit http://www.livingtravel.com/antarctica/enderby/enderby_01.htm

Hooker's sea lion, phocarcto hookeri, is rare and endangered. New Zealand's Sub Antarctic islands were granted UNESCO "World Heritage" status in 1998, when a calamitous number (53 percent of the year's pups) of Hooker's sea lions died from an unknown cause. To learn more visit http://marinebio.org/species.asp?id=305.

The yellow-eyed penguin is the third largest penguin, after the emperor and the king. Its eyes are yellow-orange, and a yellow band of feathers circles its eyes and head. In contrast to other penguins, the yellow-eyed is solitary, nesting in tall grasses. Because its habitat has been curtailed and non-endemic predators like cats, dogs, and ferrets have decimated the population, the yellow-eyed penguin is considered rare. Visit http://www.siec.k12.in.us/~west/proj/penguins/yellow.html

To read another traveler's account of yellow-eyed penguins in the rata forest, visit http://www.communigate.co.uk/ne/penguins/page12.phtml.

To see more photos and to learn about a trust that is working to restore natural habitats and increase the population of yellow-eyed penguins, visit http://www.yellow-eyedpenguin.org.nz/.

Sub-Antarctic Islands - Campbell Island

Fri, 15 Dec 2006 19:04:40 GMT

Give me a wilderness whose glance no civilization can endure. Life consists with wilderness. The most alive is the wildest."
Henry David Thoreau

It was a pleasant visual shock to wake to the green volcanic hills of Perseverance Harbor on Campbell Island after so long around the ice of Antarctica. The smell of soil intoxicates, as we climb a boardwalk up the side of this drowned out volcanic caldera. Our hope is to observe the hilltop nests of the royal albatross. These huge seabirds reach a wingspan of 9.5 to 11.5 feet, and almost 15,000 nest among clusters of brightly colored Megaherbs. These islands contain many endemic species of plants. Since being discovered in 1810 by Captain Frederick Hasselburg, the island is undergoing a longrunning conservation strategy to eradicate many undesirable vegetation and fauna introduced by ships in the past.

Weather was great for painting as it normally can rain 335 days a year, and gusts of 50 knots on more than 100 days of the year are the norm. The wind is helpful for the birds to take off; however, I can imagine my easel also doing so!

I find a large bush of tussock grass to work behind while studying a nesting couple. In this case I often use zoom photography to study the behavior and shapes of the birds, while working on a watercolor of the landscape. On these slopes, the vegetation takes on yellow and violet hues; the scene will change rapidly in values because of clouds' shadows. I work with a dry brush to suggest texture. It's refreshing to use these colors and experience relief from the blinding, reflecting glare off sea ice. However the complexity
of information is overwhelming, and there's a tendency to overpaint details while the world of ice reduces forms to basic elements.

"Painting a Royal Albatross' nest on Campbell Island." 10:00 am (photo by Daisy Gilardini)

Royal Albatross Nest of Campbell Island (watercolor, 10 x 15)

Royal Albatross nest on Campbell Island 10:30 am

--David

More Information
To see a gorgeous photograph of Perseverance Harbor, click on http://nightskypictures.com/Antarctica/Pers_Harbor.htm
A caldera, from the Latin caldaria, cauldron, is a volcanic crater that has a diameter many times that of the vent; a caldera is formed by the collapse of the central part of a volcano or by explosions of extraordinary force.

Composed of both volcanic and glaciated rock, the subantarctic islands are home to over half the world's seabirds. Campbell Island lies at 52 degrees 33'south and 169 degrees 09'east. To see pictures of all the subantarctic islands, visit http://www.subantarcticislands.com/. To learn more about Campbell Island, which has the world's largest population of royal albatross, go to http://www.subantarcticislands.com/campbell_island.html.

Joseph Hooker, the botanist on board Captain James Ross's ships, Erebus and Terror, was the first to describe colorful plants that thrive in the acidic soil of these islands. To learn more about these strange plants and to read the story behind efforts to eradicate non-indigenous plant and animal life, visit http://www.plantexplorers.com/explorers/biographies/hooker/megaherbs.htm.