Stephanie Peters

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  • Home
  • About
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    • Colorful Wildlife Encounters
    • Migration - Circle Bird Paintings
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    • Series >
      • Migration - Circle Bird Paintings
      • Flying Color - Bird Paintings
      • Ocean Life
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      • The Energy of White
      • Abstract Landscapes
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-Stories from the road-

Adventures, notes of inspiration, daily experiences, trips to nowhere and then somewhere, works in progress, creative discoveries, new work, tools of the trade, news from the studio, event updates, and things that make me smile or think deep thoughts...

The Sea Unites Us

9/19/2019

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Over the summer, I painted a mural on the recreation center, in Elliston, Newfoundland, Canada. While I was there for other reasons, the recreation committee asked if I could paint a 115ft long mural on their building and I couldn't say no to that challenge.

The wall is facing a community park they had recently improved and they thought a mural would be a nice addition. They requested that the mural be community friendly and colorful but I was free to paint what I wanted. (Of course my sketches were approved by their committee before I began.) 

I wanted to make a mural that related to their community, and their history. Elliston is located on one of the northern peninsulas of Newfoundland, and historically it was a big  fishing community. Like most of Newfoundland, after the cod industry was eliminated in the 90's, Elliston struggled to stay alive. But 20 something years later, after the community got together to promote tourism, Elliston is a tourist destination known as the Root Cellar Capital of the world, with a strong tight knit community at the core of it. It is an incredible place to watch whales, see icebergs, and plenty of sea birds (puffins, gannets, and razorbills included!) Thousands of tourists visit Elliston for their location, natural features, and even for their festivals like the Puffin Festival, and Roots, Rants and Roars - a fall event that brings chefs from all over the world to Elliston. 

With all of this inspiration to work with, it was easy to come up with a composition that highlights what Elliston is proud of: their relationship with the sea. So I drew up a composition that started with Puffins flying off an island and then flowing into the life at sea. I included a variety of sea birds (Northern Gannets, Herring Gulls, Kittiwakes, Black-back gulls, Razorbills, Double crested cormorant, Black guillemots, and Atlantic Puffins,) a fin whale, a humpback whale breaching, a humpback with calf, a minke whale, a school of cod, a school of sculpin, a gray seal, a crab, lobsters, squid, capelin, an iceberg, seaweed and a root cellar - to highlight all that is Elliston. 

The mural took ten days to paint, and thankfully, a few community members came by to help during the ten days.

Here is the finished mural:  
And a gallery timeline of the project:
Ocean mural
Ocean mural beginning
Ocean mural beginnings
Ocean mural beginnings
Ocean mural start
Ocean mural sketches
Ocean mural sketches
Ocean mural sketches
Ocean scene mural sketches
Ocean theme mural sketches
Ocean mural drawings
Ocean mural puffins
Ocean mural seal
Ocean mural  humpback
Ocean mural cod fish
Ocean mural fin whale
Ocean mural sea birds
Ocean mural iceberg
Ocean mural school of cod
Ocean mural razorbills
Ocean mural kelp and seal
Ocean mural minke whale
Ocean mural full view
Ocean mural gannets
Ocean mural humpback whale and calf
Ocean mural northern gannets
Ocean mural squid and fin whale
Ocean mural sunset
Ocean mural puffin
Ocean mural rainbow
Ocean mural seabirds and iceberg
Ocean mural capelin
Ocean mural sculpin
Ocean mural close up humpback whale and calf
Ocean mural the sea unites us
Ocean mural full view
And so after 10 days of painting, the mural was complete...
Ocean mural

I have painted murals before, but this was my biggest mural to date. I really enjoyed painting it, but what I enjoyed the most about this project was the enthusiasm from the community. This mural is theirs. Some of them painted it, but many followed the progress along on Facebook or stopped by to say hi while I was painting. I wanted to make something that they will smile at when they see it, something that brought a little color to their world, and most importantly, adds a little joy to their everyday. 

I was so lucky to have this opportunity and I cannot thank the Town of Elliston enough for giving me the opportunity  - and I'll never be able to thank those who helped enough.  

If you ever find yourself in Elliston, Newfoundland. Take a look at the mural, it's across the street from the Home from the Sea Sealing Memorial Interpretive Center. 
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Puffins for Elliston

7/31/2019

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Tourism Elliston, who hosts the annual Bird Island Puffin Festival in Elliston, Newfoundland asked Neil and I to help out with this year's festival, and this was my contribution.
The annual Puffin Festival celebrates the puffins, root cellars, and various other cultural gems found in Elliston. During our summer stay here in Elliston, we met some of the people who run the festival and they asked us if we had any ideas for this year's festival. Since I'm a big fan of public art and getting people outdoors, I suggested a puffin scavenger hunt of sorts. We could create large painted wood puffins and put them around town for people to find. And people could take pictures with them if they wanted to. 

Thankfully they liked my idea, so I came up with 6 different puffin designs and created templates for them to be cut out of wood. Once they were cut out, Neil and I primed them, then we painted various designs on the puffins. 

Most of the designs were of course inspired by Newfoundland and well puffins. After they dried, they were installed around town. Here is each puffin, and where it was placed: 
abstract puffin
abstract puffin
Abstract angled puffin
Abstract angled puffin
circle puffin
circle puffin
School of Capelin puffin
Puffin in maberly
Iceberg Puffin
Iceberg puffin
Newfoundland Flag Puffin!
Newfoundland Flag Puffin
Newfoundland and Labrador Map puffin!
Newfoundland and Labrador Map puffin
Standing Puffin
Standing Puffin
Sitting Puffin
spiral puffin
spiral puffin
These puffins have been up around town since the Festival and I hope they make an appearance every year. But if they do or don't, at least they brought a little goofy fun to the town for a weekend :) 
Picture
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