Once, There Were Seabirds

30" x 48"
Acrylic on canvas.

The title refers to a foreboding sense of impending ecological loss that impacts all ecosystems, especially the sea as the climate changes and animals die out or migrate. (It was the working title and I really love it so it stuck!)
As a counterpoint, the painting celebrates some of the most personally meaningful coastlines in my life, including Georgian Bay (left side of the painting, where the little campfire is), the Muskoka Lakes (the birds-eye lakescape below the bear's feet) and of course the coast of Vancouver Island where I in fact experienced a stunning diversity of animal and plant life during a 7 day camping trip down the coast, including seabirds!
The choice to use multiple scales of landscape (in particular the birds-eye scale of lake country at the bear's feet) is in response to the amazing ability nature has to mirror itself at different scales. If you look closely at the eroded tidal pools and mosses amongst the jagged beach rock, you can easily see that it is no different from a mountainscape seen from a birds-eye.