I had a wonderful time at my Science Café presentation last week and want to thank everyone who came, and the Pacific Science Center and KCTS 9 for making it possible. Check out the video of my presentation on the Science Café website!

In other news, my husband and I received short notice that we need to move and we’re once again in transition. My studio work is on hold for the moment while our belongings are all packed up and we’re looking for housing in Seattle. Please wish me luck and any leads are appreciated!

To study the flight of the birds and learn their accurate wing position, I watched video clips in slow motion and took screen shots, a time consuming process. Moving to Photoshop, I composed a sequence of five of my favorite positions from the video clips.

Then I started sketching, using other photos and notes for additional reference (my video stills are low resolution). 

After this, I masked off the birds with brown packing tape, and began to paint.

The black is an experiment, inspired by two of my 5×5 paintings from last month, Black Tern and Ice Shelf. I used several coats of black sumi ink, and once dry, completed the birds with a mix of watercolor and white gouache (an opaque water-based paint). I’m excited about the results! I have more paintings in the works… stay tuned and let me know what you think!

Today marks the 100th anniversary since the final journal entry made by Robert Scott on his British Terra Nova expedition in Antarctica from 1910-1912. The expedition had scientific objectives as well as the goal of being the first to reach the South Pole. This feat was accomplished one month before Scott and his companions arrived there by Norwegian explorer Roald Amundson. Scott’s team died on their return home, but out of their tragedy emerged a legacy of science in Antarctica.

One of Scott’s closest companions was Edward Wilson, one of my greatest inspirations. Wilson was a doctor, ornithologist, and disciplined artist. He first joined Scott on the Discovery Expedition to Antarctica from 1901-1904, and returned to Antarctica on the ill-fated Terra Nova, creating evocative watercolors, sketches, and observations that illuminated the polar environment and expedition life. He wrote of days like this, “…the morning was a glorious one, brilliant sunshine ahead all night and the sea as smooth as glass and the pack all loose enough to make a way through. These days are with one for all time—they are never to be forgotten—they are found nowhere else in all the world but at the poles… One only wishes one could bring a glimpse of it away with one with all its unimaginable beauty.”(Jan 4, 1911, ‘Terra Nova’ Diary). Through Wilson’s art, we all have a glimpse.

Wilson sketched with pencil and watercolor. He would add vodka to his painting water to help keep it from freezing (a trick I’ve adopted) or simply add notes to his sketches to complete later onboard the ship. His detailed study of birds and the polar environment became the basis for the book, Edward Wilson’s Birds of the Antarctic.

Finally, Edward Wilson, who was affectionately called “Uncle Bill” was admired for his good humor. He drew lively sketches of the ship life, and also contributed his work to the expedition newspaper, the South Polar Times.

In his journal, Scott wrote to Wilson’s wife, “…I should like you to know how splendid he was at the end—everlastingly cheerful and ready to sacrifice himself for others… I can do no more to comfort you than to tell you that he died as he lived, a brave, true man—the best of comrades and staunchest of friends…” (from Diary of the Terra Nova Expedition). I’ll toast to that, and add, an inspiration!

I made this small painting to explore an idea for a larger composition with several terns. I’m envisioning a series with the birds in different stages of flight. As a reference for their wing and body positions, I’m using screen shots from video clips that I’ve slowed. The painting is available in my shop for purchase.

If you can’t make it, to the Science Center this weekend, the exhibit will continue through April. And for a blast from the past, here’s an interview with me in 2007, my first year participating with the event.

This sketch is a follow-up to my Take-Off sketch, both being inspired by my time observing Albatrosses in the Falkland Islands during my 2008 artist-in-residency with Quark Expeditions. I’m experimenting with techniques for painting water.

This sketch is inspired by a photo my father took during flights over Antarctica with the NASA IceBridge project. The next IceBridge Greenland campaign will begin this April.