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Painting in Antarctica

Painting in Antarctica

Released Friday, 6th December 2024
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Painting in Antarctica

Painting in Antarctica

Painting in Antarctica

Painting in Antarctica

Friday, 6th December 2024
Good episode? Give it some love!
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Episode Transcript

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0:00

From the vastness of ice to

0:02

the raw power of swells than buildings,

0:04

Antartica is a a landscape that

0:06

is deadly as it is beautiful.

0:09

In recognition of

0:11

the centenary of

0:14

Sir Ernest Shackleton's first exhibition,

0:16

expedition sorry year, young

0:18

young people travelled

0:20

to British territory in the

0:22

Antarctic region as

0:25

part of Antarctica heritage trusts

0:27

inspiring expeditions artists Charlie Thomas and

0:29

Rose Lashham are both part of a group both

0:31

part of a group and by

0:33

work inspired by the trip on

0:35

currently is their work is currently

0:37

on display at maritime Museum and the both

0:39

of them are here with

0:41

me in the Auckland studio. Good

0:44

morning. Morey, no. Was this on this on

0:46

your bucket list to go

0:48

to the Antarctic? Oh yeah, I mean mean South Georgia Island

0:50

been a dream as a massive bird nerd and

0:52

yeah love of all of all things, outdoors, remote

0:54

and wildlife. The the opportunity to go to South

0:56

Georgia has been the top of the

0:58

list for a very, very long time. for

1:01

a very very long time. I love that bird nude.

1:03

I had always wanted to go

1:05

to Antarctica but I actually

1:07

did not know that South

1:09

Georgia existed before I applied. before

1:11

I applied. But then I got in,

1:13

in I watched so many

1:15

documentaries, I I basically knew everything

1:17

I could about South Georgia.

1:19

when people when we were finally allowed

1:21

to tell people that we were going, we

1:23

said, to going to South Georgia they'd say, say,

1:25

up oh, the up in the States last

1:27

year, I visited there on and we'd have to

1:29

go, we'd have to go, oh it's a bit further

1:31

that. that. I've to admit that I was I

1:33

bit bit the same as the same. I was thinking Georgia,

1:36

so I had to Google it had to

1:38

I saw it. then I was it like when

1:40

you first when it? saw it? Yeah, our

1:42

our first actual sighting of the

1:44

island itself yeah, etched into our memory into

1:46

our memory actually It actually started

1:48

with the of the the ship on

1:50

the ship, was giving a a

1:52

presentation about some of the early explorers

1:54

and he turns and he looks out

1:56

the he he goes, the windows and he goes, oh

1:59

there's an iceberg. an iceberg. we're all thinking,

2:01

oh no, he's pulling our leg because

2:03

this is after three days of traveling

2:05

through, of you know, through, you know, the South Scotia Sea and

2:07

sea level fog, and then fog. And then there's of

2:09

the blue, there's this iceberg, a size

2:11

of a house alongside the ship. And

2:13

then bow the see we could see through through

2:16

the sea fog the the little tops

2:18

of the peaks of South Georgia. And

2:20

we were we all like, we were our we were

2:22

in our shorts, we shorts, we all ran

2:24

outside to take pictures and it was

2:26

so exciting. Charlie, you artist, what a beautiful

2:28

description of arriving on arriving that part of

2:31

the world. world. What about you, you, What

2:33

did it feel like feel like like like and...

2:35

I think me, it really hit me when

2:37

we were on the were on the to

2:39

to our first destination. We

2:43

got got on all all

2:45

these emotions just overcame

2:47

me. me. We saw

2:49

content elephant along the shore

2:52

and we went to

2:54

went to a king penguin That was

2:56

just was just all inspiring,

2:58

think. And you got a a friend?

3:00

Yeah, I I got a friend

3:02

that same day. tiny king penguin

3:04

tiny he thought I was a think he

3:06

was a penguin as well

3:08

because I had a white

3:11

suit. So he was

3:13

following me around everywhere. had We

3:15

actually had to stay five meters

3:17

away from the wildlife at

3:19

all times. So it was a

3:21

bit hard having this king

3:23

penguin chasing me. He was the

3:25

boundary. boundary. Oh, he or she? He or she?

3:27

or she? penguins both? We don't know. You

3:29

really tell unless tell unless you've and

3:31

personal so it was just up close

3:34

and personal, the was just... They, going

3:36

to get me in trouble,

3:38

how cute. the boundary and pretty special.

3:40

you're going to get me a graduate

3:42

of was pretty special. So you are a Arts,

3:45

of taught Charlie? Yeah. What's the, What

3:47

was the you go you go

3:49

there, up you soak up

3:51

the environment and you paint or

3:53

you create? Yeah, when we when we first

3:56

met each other for the first time at

3:58

a training weekend back in June back in June, 2023.

4:00

were put together as a visual

4:02

arts group, arts Rose, myself, Tegan,

4:04

as well as Gemma, I'm doing

4:06

another who project with, which is

4:08

very exciting. project with, which is very were

4:10

presented with were outreach task our outreach

4:12

task of... Putting together either one or a one

4:15

or a couple of exhibitions about our our

4:17

about our time in South Georgia, and all

4:19

of us have very different types of

4:21

photography art styles that styles that we're interested in. we

4:23

went went away from that and sat down

4:25

and thought, thought how on earth are we are we

4:27

gonna begin to put all of our thoughts

4:29

and feelings and experiences on paper,

4:31

on whatever it was that our

4:33

medium was gonna be? How could we

4:35

figure this out? out we hadn't even

4:37

even been to the island yet and

4:39

we're already overcome with emotion, but but Yeah,

4:41

our goal our try was to try what what

4:44

we'd on the, or what we were

4:46

what we were going to experience on

4:48

the on the something that we could

4:50

share with people and that people could

4:52

experience too. And then upon returning

4:54

from South Georgia, all of us sat

4:56

down and went, upon returning from South Georgia, is

4:58

going to be a big job. and

5:00

went, oh did you decide going

5:02

to be a big job. me you

5:04

found For me, I found, I had a hard

5:06

a hard time planning it, just... like

5:09

Charlie saying just because we

5:11

wanted to immerse ourselves ourselves

5:13

and then when we were

5:15

on on the what we found was

5:17

striking. I personally found

5:19

that I the icebergs we

5:21

saw and the glaciers we

5:23

saw most striking, just

5:25

because saw most the same time

5:27

we were over at the same

5:29

time we were over iceberg had

5:31

just come on South Georgia

5:33

and broken up into

5:35

fragments. up So we saw

5:37

quite a dramatic. a dramatic thing

5:40

that showed that the world was

5:43

showed that the world was changing rapidly.

5:45

wasn't actually actually meant to

5:48

be on the island. Yeah, so I

5:50

so I took my

5:52

inspiration from that. So you

5:54

just went with what you

5:56

were, unfolding around you? you?

5:58

it, it, was your sound? Does an iceberg

6:01

breaking up make a sound? Yeah, icebergs

6:03

breaking up do make sounds. So they

6:05

have air bubbles inside of them and

6:07

so you can hear they're crackling as

6:10

they get, their air bubbles get exposed

6:12

to the current climate. What medium are

6:14

you painting? Is it oil? What's your...

6:16

I use acrylics, so open golden acrylics.

6:19

Beautiful. And they're on, and how many

6:21

pieces have you got a piece that's

6:23

on display at the Maritime Museum? I

6:25

have four pieces and then two ceramics

6:27

works. So four paintings and two ceramics

6:30

works. Wonderful. And bird nude over here.

6:32

I would imagine that you've done a

6:34

bird. Yes, I've done four birds. Four

6:36

birds and then a ship named after

6:39

a bird. So I decided to go

6:41

with water colour. It's a medium that

6:43

I've used for a while now in,

6:45

you know, telling conservation stories through art

6:48

is something I really love to do,

6:50

which is why I jumped at the

6:52

opportunity to be able to tell this

6:54

quite special and unique conservation story. And

6:57

so I ended up painting some penguins

6:59

and a giant petrel and then a

7:01

very special little bird called a South

7:03

Georgia pintail which I'm sure nobody has

7:06

heard of before unless you're a crazy

7:08

bird nerd like me and they have

7:10

a very, they're special because they're endemic

7:12

to South Georgia Island. They're a little

7:15

duck. So we've never seen it. No,

7:17

no, no, I doubt there's many people,

7:19

other people I know that have seen

7:21

a South Georgia pintail. And what's really

7:24

special about them is that, so my

7:26

background in, you know, and predator and

7:28

pest control on islands and stuff like

7:30

that, South Georgia Island eradicated rats in

7:33

2018, and if they hadn't done it

7:35

then, the amount of ice that has

7:37

retreated on the island and melted away

7:39

with glacial retreat and that kind of

7:42

thing. meant that rats would have been

7:44

able to run rampant way further over

7:46

the island and would have killed off

7:48

to extinction two pieces of birds, the

7:51

South Georgia Pintel and South Georgia pivot.

7:53

And so what I really loved about

7:55

these ducks is that ear in Antarctica

7:57

and there's penguins and seals and stuff

8:00

and then out of nowhere there are

8:02

ducks and these ducks because the the

8:04

vegetation on the island is so limited

8:06

and the invertebrates are so limited these

8:09

ducks eat penguins they penguin scraps and

8:11

so we were walking around on our

8:13

first on our first landing on the

8:15

island roses being chased by penguin I'm

8:18

chasing some ducks and I see these

8:20

ducks dabbling around in a creek and

8:22

I think oh aren't they just delightful

8:24

and then suddenly they start pulling off

8:27

little scraps of the just delightful and

8:29

then suddenly they start pulling off little

8:31

scraps of penguin flesh off the bones

8:33

and things like that and I just

8:36

thought I mean they're going to sound

8:38

really boring but they just look that

8:40

they're brown but they have a bright

8:42

yellow beak which which has and a

8:45

really long pointy tail that comes out

8:47

to a little pinpoint at the end

8:49

which was quite fun to illustrate but

8:51

I did a lot of I took

8:54

a lot of pictures when I was

8:56

there and then I did all of

8:58

my painting when I was on the

9:00

ship as to pass the time because

9:03

we would as we moved around the

9:05

island we would stop and stop in

9:07

different places in the morning and in

9:09

the afternoon and in the meantime you

9:12

kind of every now and then you

9:14

might put your head down for a

9:16

nap or you'd eat something or you'd

9:18

just sit and stare out the window

9:21

at the glaciers and stuff but this

9:23

being able to paint some of the

9:25

pictures that I'd taken and some of

9:27

the things that I'd seen during the

9:30

day was kind of how I found

9:32

myself free winding when I was there.

9:34

In Charlie's just flipping through, is it

9:36

an artist flipbook with some beautiful images

9:39

that you have created? Rose, what's it

9:41

like to have your art work on

9:43

display? I think it's pretty awesome, especially

9:45

because I've just graduated art school, like

9:48

not many people actually give you that

9:50

chance straight away, especially at the Maritime

9:52

Museum. They've been so lovely and it's

9:54

such a big to have our art.

9:57

It's pretty special. Awesome. And what about

9:59

you Charlie? Yeah, I think being self-taught

10:01

and all because I don't think we

10:03

mentioned that. You haven't had like a,

10:06

you haven't been to university or anything,

10:08

you've just learnt yourself in pretty clever.

10:10

I've had some amazing mentors in my

10:12

life though, from spending a lot of

10:15

my childhood out on Altair Great Barrier

10:17

Island. I had a wonderful woman called

10:19

Karen who taught me how to paint

10:21

with acrylics when I was very little,

10:24

and just recently when I went to

10:26

visit we got to paint a painting

10:28

together, which was nice. So I've had

10:30

mentors that have helped me through the

10:33

years. So it's been really special to

10:35

be able to share with people like

10:37

them now, like look at what we're

10:39

able to do. And I think in

10:42

particular for our exhibition, it's that it's

10:44

not just art. It's this wonderful amalgamation

10:46

of art and education and science, which

10:48

we might not have had the opportunity

10:51

to do otherwise, which is why it's

10:53

been so special to do it with

10:55

the New Zealand Maritime Museum because they

10:57

saw our vision of what we wanted

11:00

to communicate and they took it and

11:02

ran with it and have added all

11:04

these amazing little. flip tiles on the

11:06

wall that talk about things about Antarctica

11:08

and we've got another artist parlor who's

11:11

come over with an exhibition from Italy

11:13

all about Shackleton and his his endurance

11:15

expedition and some of the other ones

11:17

and yeah it's just unbelievably special and

11:20

definitely not something I'd be I thought

11:22

we'd be doing at this at this

11:24

age and I think when we first

11:26

started planning it's not something that we

11:29

ever envisioned happening. Amazing, and if you

11:31

want to go and see this exhibition,

11:33

not expedition, exhibition of the display, it's

11:35

at the Auckland Maritime Museum, and I've

11:38

been speaking with artists Charlie Thomas and

11:40

Rose Lashham, and before you go, do

11:42

you have a Spotify rap? I

11:45

do. My Spotify, my Spotify rat this year was, I

11:47

had Park Road, amazing New Zealand band, top of my,

11:49

top of my Spotify this year. You win. I work

11:52

with kids, so unfortunately my playlist is ruined. is

11:54

is it? you going to

11:56

want to share it? A lot

11:58

lot of people are in

12:00

your situation I've got to

12:02

say. got lot of lot of bye bye

12:05

which I that song but their kids

12:07

kids love that song so

12:09

I'm just that on repeat. That's iconic,

12:11

that's better than mine. than mine.

12:13

Yeah. Ten our quarter I thank you

12:15

for joining us this morning.

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