PAINTING IN ANTARCTIC

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28491, 22 January 1958, Page 2

PAINTING IN ANTARCTIC

Peter Mclntyre’s

Work

Unique paintings of Antarctic scenes will probably be seen in the main centres of New Zealand soon, when the 50 or 60 sketches made by the noted New Zealand artist, Mr Peter Mclntyre, at McMurdo Sound, Cape Hallett and Scott Base are transferred to canvas.

Mr Mclntyre, who returned to New Zealand yesterday in the United States transport, Private John R. Towle, is a former war artist, whose paintings of scenes in the Western Desert are familiar' to many New Zealanders.

Most of his work had been done during the summer nights when long shadows were cast over the snows and some interesting patterns of colour were seen, he said. The most “paintable” of the bases he had visited was Cape Hallett, which stood on a tiny promontory, with Mount Sabina rising into the clouds behind it. Cape Hallett was most picturesque and could be called the Milford Sound of the Antarctic, Mr McIntyre said. Travelling through ice in an ice-breaker provided him with some interesting scenes and he found that some of the patterns and colours produced were almost abstract in form. Plenty of Variety Mr Mclntyre said he found plenty of variety in the snow and ice formations of the Antarctic and the contrasts of colour and light and shade were more interesting than could probably be found elsewhere. An attack of jaundice interfered with his plans to visit the South Pole base and caused his premature return to New Zealand. However, he said, the month he spent in the Antarctic gave him ample time to complete his work there. When he has completed his canvasses he intends to hold exhibitions in the four main centres. . Mr Mclntyre is probably only the fourth artist to paint Antarctic scenes. The first was Dr. Wilson, who died on the return trip from the Pole in 1912; a man named Page was with RearAdmiral Byrd on one of his prewar expeditions, and Mr Leland Curtis, another American, who was the official artist on Admiral Byrd’s 1939-40 expedition. Like Mr Mclntyre, Mr Curtis was also invalided home from the Antarctic last year.