Painter’s work in Antarctic

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32810, 10 January 1972, Page 12

Painter’s work in Antarctic

New Year’s Eve spent with the background noise of a colony of penguins and the memory of water freezing on brushes as he tried to paint are two things which stand out to Mr R. M. Conly, who has just returned from three weeks at Scott Base, where he prepared paintings on the role of the R.N.Z.A.F. Hercules Cl3O in the Antarctic.

“The weather dictates every- ' thing there,” said Mr Conly yesterday. “As soon as a wind springs up, the temperature drops and in spite of your clothing it is im- < possible to work. “I used to go out with my gear and a thermos of hot water. Even so, when I was doing water colours the brushes froze solid quickly.

“When I laid washes, they I turned to frost and would glisten,” said Mr| Conly. “The paint would come off the brush in solid slivers of ice.” On New Year’s Eve, Mr Conly was flown by helicopter to Cape Royds, about 25 miles north of McMurdo Sound, where there is the southernmost penguin rookery in the world.

“On New Year’s Eve, we tuned into, by radio, the goings-on at the other bases,” said Mr Conly. “We were able to talk backwards and forwards, and to sing, and we sent the others a broadcast of the penguin noises.

“There is a great sense of camaraderie. The leader and all the people at Scott Base couldn’t do too much for me,” said Mr Conly.

Mr Conly spent his first five days at McMurdo Station doing sketches at Williams Field of R.N.Z.A.F. flights. He then went to Scott Base to sketch most of the workers there.

“I was also supposed to do sketches of the field parties, but I could not get out because of the weather,” Mr Conly said. At Cape Royds and Cape Evans, he sketched the Shackleton and Scott huts. Mr Conly will later do a series of oil paintings based on his sketches. The photograph shows al water-colour sketch of a R.N.Z.A.F. hangar at Scott Base, with Observation Hill in the background. On top of the hill, members of Scott’s 1910-1913 expedition erected a cross to the memory of their leader

and his four companions who died on the return from the South Pole in 1912.