Janine's Journey - January 2023 - Post holiday blues
Sent: 1/31/2023 2:49:12 AM

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Janine's Journey - Jan 23 - Post Holiday Blues

Hi Subscriber

Where do I start?

To say our holiday was fantastic, amazing, and awe inspiring would be an understatement!!!

We incredibly lucky with both the weather and wildlife encounters.

I could go on for hours about it but I am conscious that this is an art newsletter so here is a "quick" recap of our cruise with Aurora Expeditions as requested.

As we have thousands of photos (and it is difficult to take a bad photo when everything is so spectacular) I have decided to gradually "start" posting some travel photos on my personal Instagram account (as opposed to my textile art account) for everyone to enjoy.

If you are on Instagram and want to see more of our travel photos you can find me here

South Georgia

South Georgia is wildlife central with some of the greatest concentrations of wildlife on earth. The beaches are full of activity over the summer with all the wildlife making the most of the respite in the weather.

When we were there it was fur seal breeding season. The males took over the beaches assembling their hareems of females. It is also the time when the pups are born and they were very cute!

South Georgia is where you go to see masses of King penguins with some beaches having up to 250,000 birds!!!! We climbed the hill behind the Salisbury Plain colony to look down on a sea of birds with rivers of brown through it where the chicks congregate together.

King penguins have 3 breeding cycles every 2 years, so there were lots of the fluffy brown chicks around from last season that were starting to moult.

The other main type of Penguin we saw were the Gentoo's which are all through South Georgia and Antarctica.

We saw a couple of tiny chicks but on the whole the breeding season was late this year because of all the snow.

The males make their nest out of stones and have to wait for the snow to melt before they can build then. They are so funny waddling around collecting the perfect stones to impress their mate!

The other main animal we saw were Elephant Seals. Their breeding season is earlier in the season so the big adults had already left but there were adolescents and the cutest newly weaned pups around.

The pups were about 6 weeks old and already as big as us.

They were so curious and inquisitive, and on one particular paddle in Gold Harbour we were surrounded by a group of them investigating us and the kayaks!

South Georgia also has lots of history from the time of the fur sealers and whalers. The number of animals taken was ridiculous putting some species in jeopardy but finally most populations are well on the way to recovery.

In the museum at Grytviken (an old Whaling Station) their was a lovely quilt with Cyanotype printed images from historical photos.

We followed along in Shackleton's footsteps. Elephant Islands where some of the crew spent months under an upturned boat on a "beach" to his grave in Grytviken. We also did the final stage of his walk in South Georgia from Fortuna Bay to Stromness Whaling Station.

Antarctica Peninsula

The two things that stand out from Antarctica are the spectacular scenery which is so immense and the whale encounters in particular Minke's. Having swum with Humpbacks and Whale sharks in Exmouth and seen Orca's in Bremer Bay I wasn't expected whales to be the highlight but these Minke's were incredible.

Minke's can be shy, but the ones we encountered had obviously been reading a different script! The first one we encountered spent five hours circling the ship in Orne Harbour when there was too much ice for a zodiac landing. The water was so clear we got great views from the ship and on the zodiacs.

The next day in Neko Harbour while we were kayaking we had five Minkes swimming around us for 45 minutes. You would be watching one come towards you and another would spy hop (stick their head out of the water and look around) behind you!! They were swimming about 1 m below the kayaks!!!

Antarctica is full of big scenery. Rugged mountains and glaciers everywhere. There was more ice around than normal for this time of year so paddling through it was really special. We generally had blue skies and no wind so the reflections were fabulous.

We did the polar plunge! If we capsize when sailing I struggle to get back in the boat, but I had no problem getting back on the pontoon when the water is 0 degrees (C)!!

Ice Arch

After such an amazing time it has been a struggle to get back into it - I am still in denial that it is over, but have so much wonderful inspiration.

As we sort through the thousands of photos that we took on the holiday deciding which penguin, albatross, seal and whale photos I want to do I have opted to start with a landscape.

On this particular paddle we are in Cierva Cove on the Antarctic Peninsula on a spectacular day with brilliant blue skies and no wind.

What is special about Cierva Cove's is the constant glacier calving, (shedding of ice from the front of a glacier into the sea). This creates amazing icebergs and brash ice (fragments of floating ice less than two meters in diameter). After crunching through lots of ice we came across this massive ice arch. One of our guides went around the other side and we got this photo.

On the cruise there were two photo contest, one for South Georgia and one for Antarctica. Everyone has a vote and this one was the winner for Antarctica!! There were some comments about the "kayaking mafia" all voting together but there were several kayaking photos to choose from!

After last years exhibition I don't have anything planned for this year, so I am thinking I will enter a few quilt shows. At this stage I haven't decided which ones but thought I would keep my options open by making this one larger than I normally do so it will meet most entry requirements.

It is about 100 x 160 cm (40 x 65 inches).

As per usual I am starting with the fabric collage (or part of it at least).

With it being larger than I normally do I am concerned that all the man handling for the thread painting will fray the fabric collage excessively.

I generally don't use things like visoflex or Steam a seam as my temperamental machine doesn't like sewing through them.

For this reason I have decided to do it in sections and finish one area totally before moving on to the next. Hopefully it will work...

First up is the mountain background leading through to the ice in the foreground (but nothing to do with the arch including it's reflection).

The local fabric spot didn't have any fabric that inspired me (or was the perfect colour blue) so I made the rash decision to get a solid colour that was alright hoping all the stitching would give it some life.

By the time I had done the collage I was already regretting my decision with it looking so monotone so I sun dyed a piece to insert for the sky.

Slowly, slowly I have been adding details to the ice in the foreground and it is starting to look much better.

I have never used misty fuse before and tried on the long dark strips for the ripples right at the front. I like how it stops the fraying soft but it has peeled off with all the man handling as I thread paint. Not sure if ironing will reactivate the glue but not willing to try yet as I don't to lose all my markings which are iron away! At this stage it vindicates to do the quilt in sections, I just hope I wont run into problems when it comes to adding the next area of collage!

Art Journal

Before I left on the trip I had all these great intentions of keeping an art travel journal. I planned to do it every day, improve my drawing skills and finish with a wonderful memento of the trip.

I should have known I would be far to busy and this was all I managed to do in the entire trip!!

Well that is about it for now, I really must get this sent.

Thank you to everyone who responded to my last email. I really do appreciate it and I apologise for not responding personally. Internet was fleeting while we were away and it seemed strange to respond so long after the fact when we got home.

Kind Regards

Janine