The Manatee Mother
Last fall, I had the extraordinary honor of becoming friends with a whole family of manatees, thanks to one curious youngster who decided to play with the red dive flag that was hanging off the back of my kayak. She spent a long time exploring my boat, allowing me to scratch her belly, while she tugged at and messed with the flag.
Because she was so curious about me, numerous other mothers decided to get to know me to make sure I was not doing anything to harm their curious teenager. They even brought their newborn calves swimming by to turn their eyes up at me and make sure I knew they were all watching me.
After close inspection from the whole family, it was decided that I was the favorite safe space kayak for the youngsters. I saw babies that were probably no more than a day old all the way up to ones that were almost as big as their full grown mothers, and everything in between.
It was a truly magical day that I have been trying to figure out how to paint ever since. The problem being I usually use my photography as sketch material. But taking photos of this encounter was practically impossible, because I don’t own an underwater camera, nor do I know much about underwater photography.
Recently, when David Diez began to post his professional photos of these magnificent underwater relatives of the elephant, I figured, why not ask him if I could use his photography as reference material to begin to paint what I remember of the event. I didn’t really expect him to agree. People are often very proprietary of their work, as they should be. But David graciously agreed to allow me to paint from his work, and at last this beloved manatee mothers project has begun.
This first completed piece is an illustration study for a larger planned oil on canvas. It depicts the one female I assume was the mother of the calf who played with my boat. I will never forget the chills I got when I first realized I was under her watchful eyes. She pretty much hovered nearby giving me a silent intense look for the whole encounter. They are huge. In case you don’t know. Very mellow and usually docile, but I don’t think I want to push a mother to anger.
There are many other moments from that day I will be trying to capture along the way, but it feels good to be getting this memory down in paint at last. Most of the photos I took are not at all useful. You can see there is a manatee, but the camera above water does not begin to capture what my eyes could see through the distortion of the reflections on the water. So you end up with a large gray, vaguely manatee shaped blob in the water.
I guess the lesson for me is that what I can see with my eyes lives in my memory and will never lose its vibrancy, even if I wasn’t able to capture it with my camera. And what I can’t capture with my camera, still lives in my heart and mind, so a lack of photos to work from should not stop me from attempting to capture the memories in paint. And when I need to reference a photo to get the shapes right, it doesn’t hurt to ask someone for help.
If you are interested in manatees and want to have your own encounter, may I suggest heading to the Crystal River area and grabbing a guide to take you snorkeling or kayaking to meet them. You can find a guide by clicking here for a list of resources. Also, please take some time to read up on proper manatee etiquette when going on these encounters by clicking here! A portion of the proceeds from the sale of any manatee paintings I make will be going to places like Mote Marine Aquarium to help with treatment and rehabilitation programs for manatees in the wild.
