Stephanie Peters

My mind wanders a lot. It's no surprise then that I'm working on a dozen different ideas at the same time, inspired by everything and everywhere my mind goes. It seems like my focus changes daily - yesterday I was working on an abstract painting inspired by melting sea ice, today I'm drawing sea turtles and raccoon butterfly fish... tomorrow might be all about abstract colorful bird paintings. It's always different and I embrace that.

But sometimes a subject sticks with me for awhile. Sea Turtles seem to be one of those kinds of inspirations that lingers for long periods of time. In addition to their color and form, I just find them so fascinating: How they return to the same beach they were born to lay eggs, despite swimming thousands of miles away... how they can't actually retreat into their shells like land turtles, but still have the same overall shape. And how they have been swimming in the world's oceans for over 100 million years, continuously providing a critical part of the marine ecosystem.  There is a beautiful mystery that surrounds them as they glide freely through the water. 

So tonight, I created a new graphic inspired by the endangered green sea turtle swimming among a school of raccoon butterflyfish: 

Thanks to Finding Nemo, clownfish, scientifically known as Anemonefish, have had their 15 minutes of fame, or more like 30 minutes with Finding Dory. But these tropical fish deserve it. In addition to being quite beautiful, they have a super power! Clownfish are immune to anemone stinging tentacles, and in the wild they have a symbiotic relationship with certain anemone, where they both benefit from each others company for food and protection. Most people know clownfish as the Nemo type, orange with three white stripes across their heads and body. But there are thirty recognized types of clownfish, including black, reddish and yellow variants. And a dozen more or so that have been bred in captivity for aquariums.

These illustrations were inspired by the false clownfish. Similar to the orange clownfish, the false clownfish has a thinner black line between the orange and white stripes. I just really like the contrast of orange and white... 

Check them out at my society6.com shop,  if you want to carry around a clownfish or wear a clownfish. 

Over the past week, I have been biking up the coast of Western Ireland - part of a summer traveling around Europe that has taken me from Munich to Austria, Switzerland, Italy, France, UK, Whales, and now Ireland. Spending the last two weeks of the summer in Donegal, Ireland, where daily bike rides pass by grazing sheep. On the rare sunny day, they lounge out in the sun too. This little illustration was inspired by a talkative lazy sheep.

Available for prints here... and as products:

This watercolor painting turned graphic was inspired by wild red poppies I have recently encountered in the fields of Austria! I am spending Summer 2016 in Europe for a few different opportunities.  And I couldn't resist these beautiful poppies we keep seeing on our walks. They look so happy and cheerful.

However, the Red Poppy is not symbolically cheerful. It is used in Great Britain and America as a symbol of remembrance for soldiers who have died during wartime. Which makes it appropriate to see as I travel through Austria and Germany, two countries that have seen their share of blood in recent history.   In many of the towns we have explored, we have seen WWI and WWII memorials reminding tourists and citizens alike the history the area has experienced, right under our feet.

It's interesting to walk these streets and think that 75+ years ago, there was a different daily story being told. Perhaps the poppy can remind us that life was lost for love to survive. And now, that love grows wild in the fields or on the sidewalks, freely.

This graphic gives form to the idea that love is growing wild as poppies. And now it's available to bring love into your world too.