Whale Fest in April

Working on some pieces for the upcoming Whale Fest art show. We are allowed three pieces, up to 24" x 24". Size is not a problem for me, since I usually work small. First piece I've been working on, and am posting photos of work in progress will be a shadowbox - river painted in gouache on paper, with carved salmon sporting their spawning colors floating across it.

These are the little fish - carved out of cottonwood bark. The egg carton gives you perspective on size - the largest just over 2" long, the smallest about 1.5" long.



The fish represent salmon in their spawning colors. Kodiak is home to 5 species of Pacific salmon: Chum, Coho, Chinook, Sockeye, and Pinks. The fish are carved out of cottonwood bark, and then painted with Daniel Smith's new watercolor ground. I then painted them with gouache and pearlescent watercolors.



The salmon will float above the gouache watercolor river, that will serve as the background of the shadow box. I build my boxes out of 1/4" poplar, which I have to stock up on in Anchorage. Kodiak's only lumber supply store doesn't carry poplar boards. I will finish the box with a plexi-glass on the front, affixed with wire brads and decorated with glass beads. The finished box will be 11" long x 6" high.



Here's a similar box I made for Whale Fest a couple of years ago, called Sockeye Run: