Stephanie Peters

Earlier this year, I went to Kearney, Nebraska to see Sandhill Cranes gather during their spring migration stopover at the Platte River. The cranes feed in the fields during the day to fuel up for the rest of their trip north, then they gather to roost on the river at night. They spend about a month in Kearney before they take off for their breeding grounds in Canada. Right before they head to the river at night, hundreds of thousands of cranes come together in one of the fields near the river, as if it’s a designated pre-game party they all got an invitation to.

I’m not sure words can truly capture the magical experience of watching the cranes come together. Even visual art & photographs are limited in how much they can take you there. Being present is the only way to feel that sense of awe you’ll have. Especially since, as the cranes come together, the sun has already set, so you experience the moment through sound and energy and not so much from what you see. But what you can see, oh that’s mesmerizing - the sight of thousands of cranes in the night sky is everlasting.
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This new painting of flying Sandhill Cranes reveals a tiny moment of that experience... when the night sky turns blue, and the first cranes are flying in to gather on their staging ground. But like I said, to truly connect with the magic this painting is revealing, you’ll have to join the cranes on the Platte River.
 
Maybe I’ll see you there next year.

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: