Spawning Chum Salmon in Sooke River
This pair of spawning Chum Salmon, (Oncorhynchus keta), in the Sooke River do not look much like my photograph but that's ok ... I really like this particular painting! 5 x 7 Water Colour, May 2003
The Story behind this painting:
I have been fascinated by these placid salmon since August of 1997 when I moved to the Sooke River Estuary to complete the B. Sc. of Environmental Science at Royal Roads University.
Captain Copper and I spent many an hour floating down the river in our canoe, reading and studying; salmon leaping all around us. We wondered if one would jump into our canoe.
I became quite enamoured with these gentle and curious salmon while doing a 12 month baseline water quality study for salmon in the lower Sooke River in 1999/2000. The salmon were so curious that they would swim right up to me and around my legs as I gathered discrete water samples to test at the rivers edge. I would watch them for hours, water tests forgotten.
I set up a research and development continuous automated water quality monitoring station on the Sooke River near the Potholes and took this photograph November 9, 2001.
I have wanted to paint this scene, up close and personal with the gentle chum salmon, ever since.
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