Stage 5; The glacier front has been roughly sketched in. This has taken less than a day and I can now stand back and see if it is working as a whole. I may alter the structure of the middle section of the glacier, or simply tone down the contrast as I'm concerned it jumps out too much.

Stage 4; After sleeping on it I decided to shift the horizon up about an inch and now I've started roughing in the structure of the glacier using just three colour mixes of thin oil paint. I'm using my field painting as the main reference for colour and light, supplementing it with photographs I took at the time, which give me the detail of the structure of the ice face. Time and weather precluded me recording such details in my field painting so on these occassions photographs can be very useful.

Stage 3; I've very crudely painted in some floating ice and have sketched in the penguins. Once the water is painted in properly I will add more, smaller bergy-bits and brash ice but it is pointless at the moment as I'll only have to paint around them when I come to do the water. I'm starting to get a feel for the painting - the light and the general atmosphere. Although it was an overcast, drizzly day there was enough light to brighten the scene. I am considering moving the horizon (water line) up an inch as putting in the floating ice has altered the composition slightly.

Stage 2; I've blocked in the basic areas of the scene in very diluted, thin oil paint using a decorating brush and a large, flat hog's hair brush. This is basically a tonal underpainting; it gives me the basic format of the picture in a very short space of time. I can see whether or not I like the horizon position, which could be changed quickly and easily at this point if I wanted.

Nordenskjold glacier; This is the starting point of a new painting - a large oil on canvas (1.5m x 1.3m) of a glacier-front in Cumberland Bay East, in the general area of the harbour of Grytviken. There will be a couple of king penguins swimming in the foreground. I stained the canvas some days ago to give me a light mid-tone background and, with that now dry, I have begun the painting by marking in the 'horizon', i.e. the bottom of the glacier where it meets the sea.

Finished painting; I've worked up the foaming wave crests and then finished off with the albatross. Having completed the painting I was unhappy with the lower wing of the bird so put the painting aside for a week. Today I came back to it and altered the wing shape and angle very slightly and I think it is alright now, although one is never really sure...
When the painting is varnished in a few months time the darker areas of the sea will become richer and will blend more easily with the rest of the sea.

Stage 10; I've added spray and foam to the surface and have started working on the distant part of the wave. The foaming, breaking crests of the waves will be the next areas to tackle when I've finished the water surface.

Stage 9; I'm adding more surface patterns and structure to the main wave, gradually working back towards the horizon. After I've finished developing the waves and ripples I add the spray and foam. In these sorts of high winds even little wavelets develop a crest from which spray is whipped away. Larger waves often leave a trace of foam ground into the water below the surface, which appear as patches of mint green.

Stage 8; I've worked up the sea to the leaward side of the main wave; laying on thicker paint and developing the surface patterns on the water. Foam trails from broken waves beyond the left-hand side of the picture lie on the surface in ragged, broken lines. I've also started developing the small foreground wave. Air bubbles from breaking or broken waves are ground into the sea creating patches of mint-green water.