In the summer of 2007, Portland, Oregon had a giant school of salmon living downtown!
I was chosen to paint two of the large (52" long) fiberglass salmon to be displayed. This
was an honor because it was a fund raiser through the Western Rivers Conservancy, and
raised funds to create a wild river refuge along the Sandy River. The beautiful Sandy
River begins on the flanks of Mt. Hood and flows to the Columbia River. It is a valuable
river neighbor to Portland. At the end of October 2007, the giant salmon were
auctioned off and the monies raised went to restore and protect this rich and wild
treasure which now flows free without the Marmot Dam in place.
My "School Bus Salmon" resided at Timberline Lodge for the summer and my eagle,
grizzly and raven salmon, "Family", stayed at the Oregon Zoo until the auction event.
Please go to the web site, www.westernrivers.org to read more.
Below are views of how I tackled painting on a 3D surface. If you are interested in having
me paint a 3D animal form, please let me know. I really enjoyed painting this way and
would be interested in a commission.
Here's a view of the
salmon, almost done.
I've painted 12
youngster salmon on
each side and a
rainbow trout bus
driver. I'm just
about to paint,
"School of Salmon"
on the flanks.
It was a kick to paint
each one of these
little ones. I painted
the well behaved
kids up front and
snuck some
rambunctious kids
in the back of the
bus. :)
Check out the one
snoozing.
This is how I start
my art. I pencil
sketch my basic
outlines on the
blank page and work
from there. This
salmon is entitled
"Family". You can
see my colored
pencil rough-idea
sketch to the left.
I've saved the grizzly
bear for the last stage
to work on. After
this side, there's the
other side of the fish
to paint. It was a
very cool challenge to
portray the four
animals on different
surface areas.
I saved the bear until
the end, and he was
exciting to meet.
Portland, Oregon.
No reproduction of any kind without express written permission from the artist.
