AN ARTIST IN THE FROZEN ZONE 



The expedition was not a sketching tour, and I soon 

 found I had to seize the opportunities for this work as 

 they presented themselves. The bewildering beauties of 

 sunrise, day and sunset, as we sailed northward, called for 

 the simple materials at hand at all times; neither could the 

 ship be stopped to allow of a sketch 

 or painting, so my work must be 

 made with rapidity. In storm, wind, 

 rain and snow, rough and smooth 

 seas, at all times, pallet and brush 

 worked constantly; in all tempera- 

 tures, uncomfortable positions and 

 situations I lost nothing, for I con- 

 sidered the great event in my life 

 had come; to paint at the very heels 

 of the Polar explorer, on his field of 

 action, when the stern reality at- 

 tending a journey to the Far North 

 was an ever-present fact. 



My working outfit during the 

 voyage was simple; a box, some- 

 thing like a knapsack, provided with 

 grooves in which half a dozen acad- 

 emy boards were fitted, an extra 

 groove to receive a pallet charged 

 with colors, some painting rags and 

 a handful of brushes. With this out- 

 fit some four hundred sketches in all were made. On my 

 second trip north, having learned by experience, I pro- 

 vided myself with a box furnished with a cloth flap to 

 keep out rain and snow and which could be fastened upon 

 my shoulders. 



As the expedition steamed toward the scene of great 

 Arctic tragedies and mysteries the desire that nothing 

 should escape pencil or brush kept me on deck often eigh- 

 teen or twenty hours out of the twenty-four. And what 

 a world I found myself passing through; icebergs, great 

 towering hills of glittering crystal ; the rugged and beautiful 

 coast of Labrador, beautiful atmospheric effects: all were 

 captured in color; and all around me the photographers of 

 the party were busy. Then, as we pushed farther north, 



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HIGHLANDERS 



