The past week and a half has been stimulating, but exhausting, as we’ve steamed over from South Georgia to the Antarctic Peninsula, and finally into the Drake Passage on our way back to Ushuaia. This voyage has covered hundreds of miles at sea and I confess, it’s been a bit rough for me. High winds and waves have kept me low, along with a cold that I picked up on board. That all being said, I’ve managed to paint on land and feel optimistic about developing new work in my studio.

Yesterday I posted 29 paintings from this trip onboard, along with some of my penguin and iceberg oils and other field sketches for an art exhibit. A number of other passengers also posted their paintings which was lovely. It’s satisfying to feel that I created a body of work through this voyage and have sold a good deal of them. When I return to Seattle I will post a full gallery of my field work on my website. Meanwhile, please enjoy the what I’ve included here.

Some highlights of the voyage included seeing four species of whales all at once next to Deception Island. Several Orcas, Humpback, Fin, and Sei whales were diving and surfacing around the ship. In spite of living in Seattle, I had never before seen an Orca in the wild before and it was a special treat. I was interested to see that the Antarctic Orca is cream colored with black compared to the stark white and black in the Pacific Northwest. Visiting former whaling stations has also been eye opening and a sober reminder to the human tendency to exhaust specie populations and natural resources.

That’s all for now! Wish me calm seas for my return trip back down to the Peninsula. This voyage has been a rockin’ one.