Day 12 The International Scott Centenary Expedition Commemorative Map.

Pony day today.

http://www.atlasgallery.com/atlas.php — Crean and pony 'Bones', although in other websites it says it is Wilson with 'Nobby'.

Today I worked on the right hand side of the map on a small circular section which will eventually look like torn old paper. Within this section I decided to try and reflect a crucial aspect of the expedition: the use of horses, opposed to Amunsden’s use of dogs. It has been said that using the ponies was possibly one of the reasons the expedition failed.

The expedition took 20 Siberian ponies because Shakleton had used them successfully and consequently Scott thought this was a good idea. Captain Oates took to being in charge of the Ponies and the members of the team apparently became quite attached to them.

polar-auction-3-ponies-110915-02 — Oates and the ponies on board the Terra Nova.

2 of the ponies died during a huge storm at sea.

Anyway, I’m not the historian here, I’m just sharing a snippet of my research to explain my reasons for including this image. The reason I chose this particular image over all others was because it is on the cover of Polar Historian Dr David Wilson’s book: The Lost Photographs of Captain Scott. Dr Wilson is the great nephew of Chief of the Scientific Staff on the Expedition: Dr Edward Wilson. This year, 120 images, many taken by Captain Scott himself were published for the first time by Dr David Wilson in this book.

captain-scott-book-cover-500-6451 — Ponies on the Great Barrier 2 Dec 1911.

I consequently thought it fitting to use this image, although you will note that I have tweeked the shading to fit in with the left hand lighting in the map picture and I have given a little artist’s twist here and there to try and fit it into my style a little more. I have more to complete tomorrow. Today was morning only because of preparation for an exhibition.