This summer I’ve been spending time working on color studies. In my jewelry I work a lot with black and white, but for my original art, my larger pieces, I wanted to explore color.

In exploring color, I wanted to introduce unexpected and bright colors to the animals. I wanted the colors to make the animals a little abstract and not true to life, but brilliant.

Humpback whales are prevalent in California during migration season. For the last two years, you can see the whales easily from the coast; one day in Half Moon Bay, we were standing on the beach and we could see a pod of whales surfacing just past the waves. I’m not sure why they are so close to the coast line, but it amazes me that these huge and gentle creatures and swimming just hundreds of yards from where I’m standing.

Humback 1 is available for preorder as an 18 x 24 or 8 x 10 print.