Painting in Patagonia, Chile
It's like stepping onto the surface of Mars. So barren, so grey, so alien. Until the sun comes out. Every landscape in every season deserved to be painted.
Patagonia, stretching across southern Chile and Argentina, is one of those wildernesses where the seasons are ever-changing and the weather can be sublime and terrifying in equal measure.
Chilean Patagonia might not be everyone's first choice for a honeymoon, but it was on my bucket list, and after a lot of logistical planning, we were on our way. Our destination, some 4+ hours from the nearest town (itself a long, long way from anywhere), was the majestic Torres del Paine National Park.
I fell in love with the muted charcoal tones of the landscape, the glassy lake and the fog that hung forever in the air. The ground was frozen, the soft yellow grasses bent by the wind and fixed in their leaning by their coating of frost. I'd never, ever heard a silent quite like this place. It was so silent.
Stepping up to the edge of the appropriately named Lago Grey, you can see plenty of turquoise humps where the glacier's tongue is feeding icebergs into the lake. See them up close and they are a most brilliant, electric Pthalo blue, whilst the glacier moans and groans from somewhere in its core.
When the sun rarely does break through its dense clouds, the sky opens into velvety pinks and yellows, and the landscape that was just minutes ago drained of colour comes alive. Yellow ochre, pale lilac and brilliant azure skies emerge, as do the backs of the great iconic mountain range - for which the park is named - as if a theatre curtain was simply removed from in front of them.
In Patagonia, I fell in love with mountains, and light. Here are the paintings it inspired.
Click on the images below to see the full Patagonia paintings
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