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Imagine being on a ship in violent storm force 11 winds, with giant waves and a 15 metre (49ft) swell.

And now imagine trying to paint the scene in watercolour.

Artist Rosie Martin from Diptford in South Devon encountered these conditions on her first trip to The Antarctic in 2007, and she's expecting more of the same when she returns to paint the threatened continent again at the end of 2008.

Rosie's painting expeditions to the South Pole region follows three earlier trips to the Arctic in the north. She travels as an artist-in-residence on board a cruise ship, and paints on deck as well as on shore.

Rosie painting on deck

"I love the wildness and vastness of The Antarctic," said Rosie. "It's the seventh continent and it's huge. There's something about the North Pole which is manageable, but the Antarctic is just a wild wilderness. It's so big and extreme."

This wildness is reflected in Rosie's watercolour paintings: "They are quite abstract. Photographs show it as it is, but you don't get the savagery and wildness that you can with paintings.

"When I'm painting the scenery while I'm on the ship I have to be very quick because the scenery changes so quickly. The icebergs just skid by. I have a number of paintings on the go at the same time, so I can keep up with the varying scenes around me.

"From the painter's point of view, the main thing is the colour. The icebergs are just beautiful, and so turquoise. I ran out of turquoise last year so I'm taking six pots this time.

"And then when the snow falls onto the paintings, it's great because it adds to it. It changes the nature of the painting from just paint on paper to something which is almost environmental sitting happily on your paper."

Antarctic iceberg pictured by Rosie's partner Joe

Rosie trained at St Martin's School of Art in London and worked as a textile artist for clients which included Christian Dior, David Bowie and Jean Muir.

"David Bowie was a client of mine for a long time," said Rosie. "I used to make dresses for him when he was going though his dresses phase in the early 1970s."

These days, Rosie runs botanical art courses at the Eden Project and Dartington Hall. After producing two books on botanical art, she is now working on her third book about endangered species which will include some of her Antarctic paintings.

Rosie paints on high quality paper made by Two Rivers Paper - a water-powered traditional paper mill in Somerset. She sells some of her paintings to passengers on the ships, and brings others back home with her.

She is returning to Antarctica twice during the winter of 2008-9, with a break in South America in between.

The number of people who visit the southern polar region is strictly limited for environmental reasons and the Antarctic is only accessible from November to March.

Rosie ran out of turquoise paint on her last trip

Rosie knows she is recording a global tragedy as it happens, and that some of the landscape and species may not be there for much longer.

"It's a problem area for me," admitted Rosie. "Because I paint these things and I know they may not be there in so many years' time.

"For example, there's one species of penguin, the Adelie penguin, which could be extinct in 10 years. Their coats are impervious to snow but not rain and now The Antarctic is getting rain where before it fell as snow.

"So Adelie pengiuns are getting wet and then freezing. It's unbearable and utterly tragic that these beautiful creatures might not be here in 10 years time."

But it's exactly this threat to the continent and its inhabitants which drives Rosie to highlight what's happening.

"I have very mixed feelings. I am perpetuating this with my carbon footprint and by drawing attention to it. The big part of me thinks 'I don't want to be here, I shouldn't be here, but I am'.

"I have no excuse and I have nothing to say in my defence. I do it because I'm compelled to do it but at the same time I realise the damage I'm doing. It's a two-edged sword."

There's more of Rosie's work on her website which is linked from this page.