Postcode ATA: Antarctica, Blood Falls

Blood Falls, Victoria Land

Blood Falls flows out of the tongue of Taylor Glacier in Taylor Valley of the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Victoria Land, out onto the permanently frozen West Lake Bonney. It was discovered in 1911 by Griffith Taylor, and right up until 2017 it was incorrectly assumed that the "blood" colour was caused by algae. It is actually iron. Taylor Glacier trapped a salty lake 2 million years ago and a crack has allowed it to spew out because salt water freezes at a lower temperature than water. The heat released from the process of freezing then keeps the glacier flowing water. It is also said that the micro-organisms in the lake have survived anoxically (without oxygen) and evolved independently from the rest of the world.

Doing this scene was tricky. I felt that I needed to represent the scale of the Falls, the colour, and also the background scenery. I tried to include a tent for scale that I'd seen on a photo while researching, but I still drew it too big! I loved the colour - obviously because I'm biased towards orange. I was really trying to practice, once again, that "less is more", and just dabbed my brush around for the extra layers of colour, remembering to leave some white for the ice and snow. Another great challenge was the background, but I wanted to capture it because I had no idea that Antarctica was anything but flat or had any colours other than white! This piece was hard because the scene is so unfamiliar to the everyday person and my initial attempt was really confusing. So I had to go over every black line with a thicker pen, and I had to paint over every blue line of the ice-scape with a darker blue - but again, without drawing attention away from the Falls. By the end of it, I was happy with what I made. This was a very good way to implement all the art rules of foreground, middle-ground and background.

Image reference: Atlas Obscura

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