Terra Nova

by Tim Johnson

Original - Sold

Price

$800

Dimensions

76.000 x 51.000 x 2.000 cm.

Title

Terra Nova

Artist

Tim Johnson

Medium

Painting - Oil On Canvas

Description

Captain Robert Falcon Scott's ship, SS TERRA NOVA, sailing from Simon's Town, South Africa en route to Antarctica via New Zealand in 1910.
Commissioned and owned by Dr Sydney Cullis.


TERRA NOVA: THE ARTIST’S TALE

When commissioned to paint Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s ship TERRA NOVA leaving Simon’s Town in 1910 I had some interesting but enjoyable challenges to resolve.

This paper documents the process I followed to produce the painting.

THE COMMISSION

I was commissioned by Dr Sydney Cullis to paint TERRA NOVA leaving Simon’s Town on 2 September 1910 en route to Antarctica via New Zealand. I was asked to include Admiralty House and the British Hotel (where the officers and men respectively were accommodated). A later addition was HMS MUTINE, a survey sloop which was the only manned ship in the approaches to the harbour on the day.

The requested dimensions were approximately 420 x 297mm (A3) and I very soon realised that the composition required a very different shape and size. A quick examination of the Simon’s Town geography showed that it would not be possible to realistically include Admiralty House without using an extraordinarily wide canvas or moving the point of view so far back as to make details indistinguishable. The final size agreed was 762 x 510mm, providing enough of a panorama to include the harbour entrance on the left and the British Hotel on the right-hand edge, with TERRA NOVA as focal point and HMS MUTINE in the middle ground.

Figure 1: Simon’s Town & Approaches



STYLE

Influenced by a long Naval career, and maritime artists such as Turner, W.L. Wyllie, Thomas Somerscales and Chris Mayger, the style of my maritime paintings is detailed, quite accurate and representative. I try to incorporate the feeling of the sea and the spirit of mariners in my work, and where possible, a sense of drama.

CONCEPT

I wanted to depict the sense of excitement, trepidation and anticipation that must have surrounded the departure. Although more relevant to another explorer, I wanted to capture the spirit of resolution, adventure, endeavour and discovery. It was also important to depict the background relatively accurately, to situate the scene in 1910 so buildings, vegetation and geographical features had to be correct.

Painting ships is interesting in many ways. One of them is the ship’s attitude (the angle from which it is viewed) which conveys movement and mood very strongly. A ship viewed from ahead, approaching the viewer, evokes excitement, threat, advance, anticipation and beginning. Viewed from astern, there is a sense that the action is completed, the excitement has passed, the water returns to its former state and there is a feeling of calm. Clearly, TERRA NOVA had to be painted from ahead.

Billowing, unfurled sails adds to this excitement and grandeur, but the departure from Simon’s Town was done under power and the sails were all quite neatly furled. Another device to depict excitement is the bustle of the ship’s company on departure. Sailors waving, working, gazing at the land in anticipation of a long voyage, can all add to the atmosphere.

I had the concept in mind and could visualise the painting well enough to do some design mock-ups.

RESEARCH

Dr Cullis had provided 2 books, a number of newspaper articles, photographs and notes as part of the original commission. Although these were invaluable, none depicted the ship nor the background from the angle I wanted. Similarly, the Simon’s Town Museum and other sources provided parts, but not all of my requirements.

Internet image searches provided numerous photographs and drawings of the ship, mostly in Antarctica. By combining some of these views, I had a composite for the ship. Similarly, HMS MUTINE was not a major problem as less detail was required and numerous images of ships of her class were available.

Realising that in 1910, camera technology did not permit clear photography from moving ships, (nor was there much demand for blurred photographs of the then boring Simon’s Town environs) I tackled the background problem in a different way.

As a retired South African Naval Captain, I know the Simon’s Town area, people and weather well, and could commandeer a tug ride with the Harbour Master to sail to the position in which I wanted to situate the viewer. I took numerous photographs of the background, sea and sky from this viewpoint. An important detail is the quarry behind the ship which was freshly dug in 1910 to provide stone for construction of the dry dock in the harbour. Over 100 years later, the colour of this unsightly scar on the mountain is subdued and I had to brighten it up to reflect its freshness.

Captain Bill Rice, a retired Naval Engineer and avid historian provided plans of the Naval Dockyard from the period as well as critical photographs of key buildings.

METHOD

Using the Graphical Image Manipulation Program (GIMP)# I combined photographs of the modern background into a seamless panorama and eliminated buildings which were built after 1910. I placed an image of HMS MUTINE in her approximate position in the roadstead and combined selected TERRA NOVA images and superimposed them onto this background. After some minor adjustments based on inputs from Dr Cullis, I was ready to draw this composition onto canvas.

Using a weather report from the day, I first airbrushed the sky in acrylic. Once dry, I drew the composition (using a black & white version of the composite photograph) onto the canvas in diluted alkyds, blocking in where appropriate to produce a combined drawing, value study and underpainting (why waste time?).

The painting then progressed over a number of weeks, using glazing and conventional technique to produce the finished work.

Figure 2: TERRA NOVA departing Simon’s Town 2 September 1910

Problem areas were the British Hotel, a distinctive building which I have had to enlarge somewhat to include detail and the rigging which I have reduced as it was cluttering and overwhelming the ship itself. With the hotel and HMS MUTINE’s white ensign on the extreme right edge of the composition, there was also a danger of this area detracting from the TERRA NOVA and “splitting” the composition. I damped down colour and detail to avoid this.

The furled sails are not painted as neatly and shipshape as they were. I wanted to “loosen up” the ship to convey the impression of having just got under way with things still being tied up, stowed away and battened down.

I take photographs of my work at various stages during the painting process. In the case of historical paintings such as this, I view them in sepia which “ages” the impression and is a useful guide for values. My objective is to produce a colour version of a sepia photograph which would go unnoticed in an old collection from the era.

Figure 3: Sepia photograph of the painting

Comment has been received regarding the bright colours in the painting. These comments are quite common from the Northern Hemisphere, especially Europe. South African light, in September, and the colours it creates are depicted quite accurately in this painting.

CONCLUSION

I really enjoyed this commission for many reasons. I am a maritime artist and capturing the spirit and mood of ships at sea gives me great pleasure. Researching the history of a specific incident is both interesting and challenging. Having painted this scene as an imagined spectator, I feel a connection to the expedition. Tenuous because of time and distance, but quite real to me.
This painting can be viewed and comments left on my website http://tim-johnson.artistwebsites.com/featured/terra-nova-tim-johnson.html

Please visit the site and leave feedback which is almost as valuable to me as the painting itself.

TIM JOHNSON
CAPTAIN (SAN)(Retd)

Uploaded

January 3rd, 2012

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