NC #44 Sea Otters

• One in sleeve, or box of eight.
• Notecards are blank inside,
• a note about the scene on the back, with envelopes.
• Size 4 3/4 x 6 1/2, A-6.

The image is from a 1989 painting of Sea Otters that was inspired by a moment at the Point Defiance Zoo where two Sea Otters were horsing around and one wanted to see something in the distance and got up on the other’s shoulder.  I wasn’t able to convey that (As one Sea Otter lifted itself, the other immediately began to sink!). But the painting I was able to arrive at was charming in its own right.  I added a youngster in the foreground for various reasons, and there hasn’t been much objection to that. All in all, one of the more successful images to have come out of my 40-year-career.

Here is the text that appears on the back page of the Notecard:

Sea Otters

Sea Otters are both the smallest Marine Mammal and the largest member of the Mustelidae, or Weasel family, at 31-100 lbs. Sea Otters were obliterated in Washington state by a relentless fur trade that began in the 1740s. The current population owes its existence to a reintroduction of individuals from Amchitka Island to Washington’s outer coast in 1969-70. The painting shows two adults and a youngster, the latter closest to the viewer and lying on its back (this favored pose is a giveaway that you are looking at a Sea Otter and not a River Otter.) Sea Otters are of crucial importance to the marine ecosystem as they eat Sea Urchins which, if not kept in check, can degenerate the Bull-Kelp beds that provide food and habitat to a myriad of marine species.