Mar 6, 2022
The Turtles of Edwards Bay
homage to my fellow lake swimmers…
Seattle’s Seward Park hosts a colony of turtles. You find them at Andrews Bay most sunny afternoons. They climb aboard a fallen Douglas Fir tree trunk to sunbathe. The water lilies that line the shores of Andrews Bay begin to bloom around June. And on summer afternoons, this vignette casts a magical spell on the park visitors, including me.
In this piece, I wanted to capture the delicate light reflecting off the lily pads. The concentric ripples on the water’s surface. The images of turtle heads reflected onto the water. The single water lily flower just on the verge of opening, a torch of dazzling white light.
During the summers I lived in Seattle, I swam in Lake Washington (well away from the turtles and their protective ring of water lilies.) I’d been training to prep for the Seattle Children’s Hospital fundraiser swim — a 1.3-mile swim across Lake Washington at the end of August. On one memorable workout — my head down surveying the lake bottom — a turtle zoomed past, ten feet below me along the bottom of the lake. Turtles are not the slow, languorous creatures we believe them to be.
This piece was the first of my #ArtForGood series, where proceeds from sales were donated to a non-profit appropriate to the piece. Proceeds from this one were donated to Friends of Seward Park, “a group of citizens working to preserve the unique habitat and cultural legacy of this historic park.” Thanks Leslie for your support.
Specifications
- Medium Sennelier oil pastels on Canson Aquarelle Rag, 240gm
- Dimensions 8″ x 10″, mounted, double-matte (in colors, as shown), 11″ x 14″, unframed
- Donation $75.00
- Status In private collection
