Part I: Seals teeth and whales ears - Scott Polar Research Institute ...

Edward Wilson, the biologist with Captain Scott's expeditions, who was a role
model for me at that time, had produced an amazing amount of high quality work.
His paintings, which I had studied in the archive of the Scott Polar Research Institute,
in Cambridge days, had impressed me enormously and I attempted to emulate him.
Painting was not as painful for me as for Wilson, because our climate was on the
whole less rigorous. But at times during the winters it did get quite cold - down to c.
- 40° C on the man-hauling sledging trips that we made (feeling as low as -60° to -
70°C if the wind chill factor was taken into account).
It is difficult, if not impossible, to paint in these conditions because of the cold,
the wind and tiredness. Besides there was my energetic field research to do, so time
was very limited during daylight hours and one often felt tired in the evening. In any
case, even during the day the hut interior was very dark. Like Wilson I made rapid
pencil sketches in the open, with detailed 'shorthand' notes of colour effects. Like
Wilson, I worked up the sketches into finished watercolour paintings during the
winter evenings, often months later. We had no electricity during the first winter and
so the illumination was provided by Tilley oil lamps, and had a yellow hue. My
earliest paintings reflect this and the snow shadows tend to be green, but I soon
learnt to compensate.
Initially I painted small landscapes featuring Signy and Coronation Island and
was fascinated by the shapes and colours of snow and shadows, learning how to
suggest textures and to paint rock exposures. I learnt that the impression of snow can
be created by leaving areas of white paper untouched - what you leave out is as
important as what is put in. I was also interested in sunsets, fuzzy pack fog and
cloud effects. Later I painted larger pictures and for the most part came to
standardize on Rowney Whatman 9 lb Imperial paper (20 x 14 inches) which was
packaged in blocks of 20 sheets. I also painted some very large pictures (for
watercolours that is) of up to 34 x 21 inches. For these I made a number of smaller
pencil sketches, subsequently combined for the finished painting, and for them I had
ordered quantities of heavy watercolour paper.
The other work I produced consisted of more detailed drawings and paintings of
biological subjects - the freshwater crustaceans, marine fauna such as nudibranchs
and their egg masses, crustaceans, polyps, worms, fish, and a squid that I captured,
terrestrial animals and lichens. In spring and summer I painted elephant seals,
Weddell seals and their pups, and birds. I was also collecting and preparing study
skins of birds for the Natural History Museum in London, so I took the opportunity
to draw and paint them. Like Wilson or Tunnicliffe, though lacking their skill, I made
a series of paintings indoors of birds such as blue-eyed shag, Wilson's storm-petrel,
snow petrel, cape pigeon, skua, gull, penguins and so on, showing the head in
profile, outstretched wing, leg and foot. I also undertook a number of pen and ink
drawings, on Bristol board, of birds, animals and people, and a series to illustrate the
elephant seal work, some of which were later published.
I had worked up most of my field sketches by the end of the winter, but ran out
of paper and still had a few to do. I was very pleased with them, as I hadn't done any
serious landscape painting before. Jack Shirley, one of my college friends sent some
new paints in response to a cable I sent him, and more which I had requested came
out from FIDS. Also my father sent drawing blocks at my request. All the drawings
were supposed to be the property of the Colonial Office as were the negatives of my
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