Hila

The source of inspiration for the Aquatic Arctic Beasties

Old newspapers are quite useful when you are an artist. To be honest it is not very often that I read them, unless something of interest leaps out at me. I had spread out some old paper on my working surface and this is the article I discovered that piqued my interest.

Some words and phrases in Inuktun

Languages are something that I am fascinated by, especially how poetic ones other than English can be. The notion that 'consciousness' has the the same word as that used for weather is one that appeals to me.

Beluga Whale (its actually a dolphin)

I had the aquatic arctic beasties completed for a couple of weeks when I was thrilled to see them on Frozen Planet , the latest series to be presented by Sir David Attenborough. It is a must see is you have an interest in animals, dramatic landscapes and the environment. 

Narwhal

When I first heard of narwhals, I honestly thought they were a creature of myth, rather like the unicorn. As you can see they are as real as you and I. Trying to find images of them to paint was actually quite tricky, but I was stoked when I discovered this one.

Both have fascinated zoologists for many years and here is a gorgeous old illustration that I came across that I loved. Unfortunately I am not so great at documenting where I source images (my bad), but this one was too good not to share.

If you would like to see the completed water-colour illustrations they can be viewed on ellaQuaint on Felt

or ellaCute on etsy