I love that you usually can’t see whales under the surface. Maybe this isn’t a ground-breaking revelation, that water reflects and hides what’s below, but this mysteriousness never ceases to capture my curiosity and imagination. The sea often feels barren and void of life, but you really don’t know what could suddenly break through the surface and come into sight.

I recently had the opportunity to do a lot of thinking about water veiling whales while I was volunteering with Straitwatch—a marine mammal monitoring and education program. A big part of what they do is warn boaters about whales in the immediate area and then educate them (the boaters that is, not the whales) about what to do and how to safely share the water. If you are curious about the regulations for watching whales (like how far away you should be and what speed you can go), check out this page on DFO.

We spent the day along San Juan Island, USA. I learned that there is an active community of land-based whale watchers on the island, and to prove it, they were on the scene before we were. If you ever have the opportunity to see whales from land, it really is an incredible experience. It is the least invasive way to see whales and you don’t have to think about your proximity or speed. Lately there have been lots of sightings of Bigg’s killer whales off Victoria, so I am hoping to see some from land again soon.

I sure am glad I put on my lucky orca socks that morning (thank you to my whale artist friend in Taiwan, Fan Han-Yun)… because this was the first time I’ve ever seen Southern Resident killer whales! It was amazing to finally witness this struggling population that I have heard about, read about, and made art about for many years. The orcas we saw were part of J pod. They seemed relaxed to me. Not in a rush. Just doing their thing. We stayed well back, flew our ‘whale warning’ flag and educated boaters in the immediate area. It surprised me how easy it is not to see whales or know where they are, even when I know they are there in front of me. They spend more time under water then above, so I guess it makes sense that they can be illusive.

I want to leave you with a few pictures from this day. Orcas are perfection in everything: colour, form, complexity. To see their sharp, striking bodies break the surface is almost unbelievable. On top of seeing the Southern Residents for the first time, this day really felt like a dream as wild fire smoke was heavy in the atmosphere, tinting the sky and water (and yes, I had ‘Smoke on the Water’ stuck in my head all day long… dun, dun, dunnnn…).

In this first photo, you can see Victoria behind the orca

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Thank you to everyone who came to the AGGV Paint In event! I had the best day! It was such a pleasure to see so many new and familiar faces, friends and family (some coming as far as Vancouver). Apparently 40,000 people attended this event! Phew! My heart is filled with joy to have this opportunity to share my work, talk about whales and make connections. Thank you for supporting and encouraging local artists ♥

P.S. Part of what made this day so great was because I got to spend all of it with my favourite person. Thanks for the help, babe!

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Oh, and one last thing…

I wanted to give you a heads up that my final workshop for 2024 will be happening Saturday, Oct 26 at the Vancouver Island School of Art (VISA) here in Victoria. If you are interested in joining, I recommend heading over to the the VISA website so you can view the full workshop description and registration information. Registration just opened up and it is already half full. 🙂