Silver grey skies today let the mysterious blue bergs show their true colors. We disembark the ship to visit Horseshoe and Stonington Islands today. Our icebreaker, Kapitan Khlebnikov, has 2 helicopters which can hold 8 passengers and gear, thus making these landings possible. Zodiacs (inflatable boats) cannot reach shore due to pack and fast ice. These islands were research stations at one time. It's tempting to sketch them but I am drawn away by the blue bergs and the vastness of this place. On Horseshoe Island I'm attracted to the arrangement of icebergs in the middle ground and the fact that these shapes are echoed in the mountains behind.

On Stonington Island a huge blue ice wall immediately strikes me. To paint this ice wall requires a panoramic format; thus, I divide a half sheet horizontally with thin painter's tape. The advantage of working on loose, larger sheets is that I can create different shapes of paper, plus also work on two paintings at a time on the same page. Sometimes it takes a wash awhile to dry, so I can be working on another painting on the same page.

As an image, the ice is complicated, and yet has such gesture and rhythm throughout, so I spend some time drawing (with an HB pencil) the essential crevasses. There isn't time to paint the whole ice wall on site, so what is important is to do a small part very well, and let the viewer fill in the empty spaces.

The blue ice color is very difficult in that it can be hot cobalt and cool turquoise simultaneously. The sky color can change the color of the reflective ice so fast! In this case, I block and model small sections at time, so I can complete an area before a wash freezes. Working light to dark, I start with a wash of violet, and drop in a bit of rose pink and yellow. While the paper is still wet, I add the darker blues: a combination of turquoise, cerulean blue (red shade), and some more opaque horizon blue--making sure I let some of the pinky violet under wash show through. When a section is dry, I add the next value to the darker ice cracks. In this case, a wash of turquoise blue blocks in the shape. While that wash is still wet, I add a darker Winsor violet with a touch of ultramarine blue. I paint the entire painting with my oriental wolf hair brush, which can make interesting organic marks and cut a hairline crack, as well.

"From Horseshoe island, Marguerite Bay, Antarctica." 10in. x 15in. watercolour

"Ice Wall, Stonington, Antarctica." 8in. x 22in. watercolour

Last, I block in the sky--using lots of Winsor & Newton ox gall flow medium while paying attention to the light values. Light sky is in contrast with dark ice, while an opposite or counterpoint is dark sky illuminating light ice.

The process of a painting can be a metaphor for the interrelationship of dark and light in our own lives.

Painting with Wolf hair brush, Ice Wall, Stonington (photo by Daisy Gilardini)

-- David

More information:
The Bellingshausen Sea, named after Admiral Thaddeus Bellingshausen, is on the west side of the Antarctic peninsula.

Sea ice is ocean water that freezes, in contrast to icebergs that are pieces of glaciers and are thus composed of snow (fresh water). Sea ice is formed over a period of time.

Fast ice is sea ice that has formed along the coasts and is "fastened" to the coasts. The ice David is seeing shows an array of colors. The thicker the ice, the whiter it appears. If ice looks gray, it's thinner, holding larger pieces of ice together.

Pack ice is a floating mass of old ice. During winter, pack ice expands to cover about 8 percent of the southern oceans.

For wonderful pictures of sea ice and fascinating answers to questions about it, visit http://southport.jpl.nasa.gov/polar/iceinfo.html.

This is the first time I have seen such clear and calm weather, at the 8:00am landing to Port Lockroy. The temperature was 5 degrees Celsius; the water was like glass, reflecting the ice-capped mountains that were cut in half by a thin hanging cloud. This wonder is great for the camera but difficult to paint: it's just so postcard perfect. However, remembering my visit to Port Lockroy on Christmas in 2005, when it was a high summer blizzard, I am quick not to complain. The first painting of the day was too typical and boring; I was seduced by the souvenir view and did not respond to deeper rhymes and patterns. That aesthetic spark needed to awaken; it takes time, and often I have to have the discipline to just paint until it awakens.

By 11:00 am I encounter a sculpture of whalebones at Jougla Point, composed of relics from past whaling operations; the sculpture casts shadows and cuts dramatically the minimal horizon. The gentoo penguins will walk in and out of the picture giving the necessary scale in such vastness. I like paintings that turn out quickly--letting the white (of the paper) do all the work. In this case 40 minutes is all it took.


Whalebones at Jougla Piont on Wiencke Island
 
I was hoping in this entry to talk about the blue ice and the art of seeing, but weather has granted us extra landings, plus entry through one of the wonders of Antarctica, the vista of the Lemaire Channel. Thus today is another one of process, responding quickly and with directness. I set up my easel on the fly deck and tie the easel to the railing and proceed with a wet-in-wet approach. Processes should be as spontaneous as the creation of these geological wonders. Marks and slashes of paint are interrupted by sighting a pod of Orca; thus, I have camera ready at all times.

In this 20-minute Lemaire Channel painting I worked on a half sheet of 140-lb. Winsor&Newton cold pressed paper divided in two. I soaked the paper with a very light violet; then I started with the sky, background to foreground. Paints from the sky and the mountains were also repeated in the water; however, I also left parts that are just the white of the paper.  Big shapes were blocked in and darkest darks of ultramarine blue, scarlet lake and a dash of aureolin yellow are slashed in. While the paper is still wet the key to this painting is scraping out the light shapes and jagged peaks, using my commercial "5 and 1" paint scraper. This is where I reach inside and imagine myself as a glacier carving shapes. There is room for accidents and unexpected marks. Painting has to have surprises to be fun.

Using scraping tool Painting the entry into the Lemaire Channel

"Entry into the Lemaire Channel" 10in. x 15in. watercolour

This day has the reward of another late landing at Peterman Island. A huge ice halo rainbow circles the sun, as we approach the gentoo and adelie penguin rookeries.

The halo reminds me of the artist wheel, and that I am at the bottom of this round, beautiful Planet!

-- David

More information
At one time there were over 225, 000 blue whales; today there are fewer than 2,000. Other whales inhabiting the Southern Polar Ocean are sei, minke, humpback and killer.

Over 100 million birds breed on or around the Antarctic coastline each spring. In addition to petrels and fulmars, you can find skuas, gulls, terns, and the albatross. And of course, penguins. The emperor and adelie breed only in Antarctica. There are about 300,000 breeding pairs of gentoo penguins on the Falkland Islands. To learn more about wildlife in Antarctica, visit Australian Antarctic Division Web site at www.aad.gov.au/default.asp?casid=5551.

Lemaire Channel extends from False Cape Renard north to Cape Cloos in the south. At its narrowest it is less than 800 meters wide.

The British Royal Navy established Port Lockroy during World War II, as part of the UK's military campaign. In 1962, the station was boarded up; since 1996 it has been open for visitors. Port Lockroy is now a scientific station that compiles and analyzes data to determine the effect tourism has on the breeding of gentoo penguins. Current studies suggest human visitors have had no adverse effect on penguin colonies.