Tag: Alaskan Art

Seal or Sea Lion?

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One common question visitors or newcomers to Alaska often ask, when spotting marine mammals in coastal waters, is “Is that a seal or a sea lion?”

To answer that, I will describe them both for you and then give you some tips to tell the difference.

First, Seals:

Hello Harbor Seals 11×14 acrylic on cradled wood panel.

These are harbor seals, which are the seals you will most commonly see in the parts of Alaska most folks visit. They are grey-brown and speckled, with large eyes, and tend to hang out alone. You will most likely spot them just sort of hanging out in the water, peeking above the waterline, or moving quietly around, disappearing and re-appearing here and there. They are distinct from Sea Lions in that they have no ear flaps. If you see one out of the water (rare-they spend the majority of their time afloat) they move awkwardly, scooting and flopping along on their bellies because of their short front flippers and their hind flippers that point straight behind. For this reason they avoid going ashore and prefer to stay in the water where they can swim quite gracefully. Harbor seals average around 300 lbs at adulthood, with males slightly larger than females.

Next, Sea Lions:

Sea Lioness 11×14 acrylic on canvas

This is a female Steller Sea Lion (or lioness). Steller sea lions are golden brown in color, with darker brown points (extremities), and can often be seen actively swimming in the large, mixed age and sex social groups in which they live. They have long front flippers they use to propel themselves through the water and small ear flaps. Unlike seals, sea lions can often be spotted hauled out on rocky shorelines, docks, or navigational buoys. They move on land by rotating their hind flippers forward so that they scoot on all fours and can move fairly quickly on land. They can also be quite loud and rowdy, with males reaching up to 1200 pounds and growling or roaring their opinions to the much smaller (around 500 lbs) but equally vocal females.

In my paintings, I have tried to convey the very different impressions one gets of these two often confused marine mammals. I’ve painted calm, soothing icy water gently surrounding the floating seals, and a sea lioness actively hunting as she dives in pursuit of her prey, while turbulent water swirls around her.

I hope this helps you to spot the differences and be able to identify two of Alaska’s beautiful and charismatic marine mammals.

Both paintings are available for purchase. Details in the Gallery.

The Living Tundra

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I just added three new paintings to the Gallery. These are a continuation of the Living Tundra series that began with this larger (16×20) piece:

The Living Tundra

The three new additions are a series of smaller (8×10) portraits of individual caribou across the seasons:

Twilight Tundra
Winter Comes Early
Autumn Trek

Caribou never fail to inspire me and I’ve enjoyed painting these three guys with their varied settings. All three are lightly textured and painted on heavy 1.5 inch profile gallery wrapped canvas and are now up for sale in the gallery. I hope you enjoy them.

Happy Spring Thaw!

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Happy thaw, everyone! I know it’s officially been spring for a while now, but in my part of Alaska we are just now getting rid of our last bits of sloppy wet snow. Further north, it will take a bit longer still, though with much warmer than usual temperatures throughout Alaska this year things are thawing much earlier than usual.

So, in honor of spring, I painted a picture, of course!

Cheerful Tulips

The photo shows it a little dark, but the painting is actually quite bright and cheerful, much like my attitude when spring finally rolls around. I cant wait to start digging in the garden again! I have a bed of native wildflowers that should start showing themselves soon, and its almost time to get Kale, Broccoli and Pak Choy in the ground. Plus, I will be starting seeds
of more tender plants in the high tunnel . Fresh basil, here we come!

Of course spring in Alaska means several more exciting things:

The return of the humpback whales following the huge schools of herring as they spawn along the coast The best place to see them in my humble opinion is beautiful Sitka, where you don’t even have to go out in a boat to see them up close and personal. Just stand on the shore and listen to them blow and call as they pass by, and wait for the dramatic moment they all dive deep and then rise as a group and scoop up tons of herring caught up in their clever bubble nets.

Humpback Whale Breaching

Brown bears and black are coming out of hibernation (many mamas with cubs in tow) anxious to fill up on the fresh greens popping up in sunny sites and whatever tasty morsels they can scrounge up along the coastline.

Mama bear and her 3 cubs fresh out of hibernation.
(photo: Ninilchik Fishing Charters)

Of course that’s just the prelude to the big feast coming up!

Boats are coming out of their own hibernation as fishermen get them primed and ready for “the season”.

Photo: AFishunt Charters

Soon they will be lining the harbors all over Alaska waiting for the first early salmon openings and halibut charters.

Three Fishing Boats

Its breakup season here in Alaska, but no need to cry! The tripod at the Nenana Ice Classic on the Tanana topples as the river ice breaks up and someone wins a lot of money. (The breakup happened earlier than ever in the 102 history of the event with the tripod toppling on April 14 this year)

Tripod at the Nenana Ice Classic (photo Alaska Dispatch News)

How about you? What has spring got you excited about? Tell me all about it in the comments!

Sweet Dreams Little Octopus

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I just finished a new painting, which is a great example of my more whimsical approach to Alaskan wildlife. I hope you find this as fun to look at as I had painting it!

Sweet Dreams Little Octopus

This little octopus is tucked in tight with his favorite toy shipwreck, snuggled under a kelp blanket, with his head softly cradled on sea sponge pillows. Angler fish is (begrudgingly) providing his night light. Sleep tight little one!

This painting is 24×30, highly textured acrylic on canvas. It will be added to the Gallery soon and available for purchase.

Just added to the gallery

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I just added a new batch of paintings to the gallery. I will continue to add more as I get them photographed.

The above painting, “Denali Park Birches,” was inspired by a short hike I took with my family on a trail in Denali National Park in the fall of 2017. My husband and I try to spend our anniversary in the Park each year. (Some years we make it, some years we don’t.) That year was a particularly glorious fall for the birches and aspen in the Park and I remember standing at a trail side overlook and taking in this glorious scene. Of course I had to paint it! At the time I wasn’t able to , but I finally got around to it and here it is!

If you ever get a chance to visit Denali, I recommend going in early fall if you can— late August to early September, for fewer mosquitos, peak color and peak animal activity. Last time we visited we saw 23 grizzly bears in a single day!

But whenever you go, please do! It is truly a national treasure.