From the Smithsonian Institution News Release Dated July 31, 1986, Titled ANTARCTICA WATERCOLORS EXHIBITED AT NATIONAL MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY "To make it feasible to paint on location, deLeiris made a tent with a vinyl window for protection--both for herself and the watercolors--against the cold. Most of the austral summer season was warm enough to paint outside, but there were times when she needed the tent."

"On one day when she misjudged the temperature on the glacier, her journal read: "Painting on the glacier was a disaster. Starry patterns emerged on the paper as the washes froze in seconds. Another brush stroke would turn it all into colored snowflakes that would coat the end of the brush. Mixing paint on the palette would result in a lump of colored slush!" "Dropped off in the mornings, with only a radio for communication with the station, the artist spent full days on the islands near Palmer, observing, painting and drawing penguins, cormorants, giant petrels and seals."

"I came to know the animals well after observing them over most of the breeding season, and watching the changes taking place in their behavior as they passed through different stages of the life cycle," deLeiris said. "I also saw the changes of the ice, the weather and the lights as the season progressed. The scenery was constantly changing, varying from day to day and from hour to hour with the changing light and conditions. It was a painter's paradise." "Lucia deLeiris' previous work includes three sets of posters produced for the National Geographic Society (1982-1983) and drawings made for animation in the color film,"The Last Chance", prepared for the Smithsonian's National Zoo (1979)."