Encounters with whales | Barbara Howard's Unfolding Visual World
>

Barbara Howard's Unfolding Visual World

Site Navigation[Skip]

  • Home
  • About the Artist
  • Encounters with whales
  • Paintings
  • Last Paintings
  • Wood engravings
  • Drawings
  • Design
  • CV
  • Contact
  • Links

Encounters with whales

During a visit to Vancouver Island's China Beach in 1983, Barbara Howard encountered the carcass of a beached whale. Her attention was caught by the plight of the great whales in our time, and for nearly a decade she devoted herself to learning about them and trying to convey their mystery and grandeur. 

In his essay Encounters and Recollections in the Art of Barbara Howard and Richard Outram, the poet and critic Jeffery Donaldson writes: "For the most part, these are portraits of the mammals in something like their private element. Their appearances are brief, ecstatic revelations, fortuitous glimpses, sudden soundings. They seem to break forth abruptly from their solitude and then slip away as quickly again.” 

Some of these paintings are as much as sixteen feet (5 metres) across. The largest canvases have never been publicly exhibited and those images have been left uncropped in order to give a sense of their size.


Blue whale: Approaching

Blue whale: Approaching

Blue whales: Moonlight and Stars

Blue whales: Moonlight and Stars

Blue whale: Fluking, Sunset

Blue whale: Fluking, Sunset

Blue whale: Close Encounter

Blue whale: Close Encounter

Blue whales: Morning Light

Blue whales: Morning Light

Blue whales: Bow-wave and Spume

Blue whales: Bow-wave and Spume

Humpback whale: Fluking

Humpback whale: Fluking #2

Humpback whale: Flukes at Sunset

Humpback whale: Flukes at Sunset

Right Whale: Flukes

Right whale: Flukes

Humpback whale: At the Surface

Humpback whale: At the Surface

Right whale: Fluking

Right whale: Fluking

Bryde's whales: Sea of Blood #5

Bryde's whales: Sea of Blood #5

Humpback whale: Flukes at Dawn

Humpback whale: Flukes at Dawn

Humpback whales: Cow, Calf, Underwater

Humpback whales: Cow, Calf, Underwater

Untitled (Apotheosis) copy

Untitled (Apotheosis)

Blue Whale - Flukes.jpg

Blue whale: Flukes

Blue whale flukes detail

Blue whale: Flukes, detail

Blue Whale - Feeding on Krill.jpg

Blue whale: Feeding on Krill

Blue whale feeding

Blue whale: Feeding on Krill, detail

Blue whale and rainbow

Blue whale: Spume and Rainbow

Blue whale & rainbow

Blue whale: Spume and Rainbow, detail

Humpback beneath surface

Humpback whale: Beneath the Surface

Humpback beneath surface detail

Humpback whale: Beneath the Surface, detail

Breaching humpback whale

Humpback whale: Breaching

Breaching humpback whale detail

Humpback whale: Breaching, detail

Fluking humpback

Humpback whale: Fluking

Fluking humpback detail

Humpback whale: Fluking, detail

Humpbacks - Cow & Calf.jpg

Humpbacks: Cow and Calf

Humpbacks, cow-calf detail

Humpbacks: Cow and Calf, detail

Right Whale-At the Surface

Right whale: At the Surface

Right Whale-At the Surface-detail

Right whale: At the Surface, detail

Fluking right whale & Cetus

Right whale: Fluking, and Cetus constellation

Blue Whale - Sea of Blood #3.jpg

Blue whale: Sea of Blood #3

Sea of Blood, blue whale 2

Blue whale: Sea of Blood #3, detail

15

Fin whale: Sea of Blood #4

Sea of blood, fin whale, detail

Fin whale: Sea of Blood #4, detail

Sea of Blood #2

Blue whale: Sea of Blood #2

Sea of blood, blue whale

Blue whale: Sea of Blood #2, detail


© Estate of Barbara Howard 2013
[Back To Top]