Swimming Turtle

The last painting of the crow and dove reminded me of the time, as a park ranger, I led a program where I told stories of animal myths from different cultures. While researching for that program I had seen many wonderful animal illustrations in children’s books and decided it would be fun to do an animal series in my abstract style. Swimming Turtle is my first attempt, it’s actually my fourth turtle painting.

Last weekend when a certain politician in the news was compared to a turtle on my twitter feed, my reaction was that was a grave injustice to turtles everywhere. I love turtles and feel fortunate when I spot one in nature. In Native American lore the earth was called “turtle island,” from a tale that the turtle carried the earth on it’s back. In this painting I have the turtle swimming through space.

Shining Sea Turtle

Shining Sea Turtle = acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

Shining Sea Turtle is a new turtle painting of mine.   I had not painted in about a month as my daughter is graduating from high school in a few  weeks.  She will be going off to New York University in the fall.  It was very unexpected as we assumed she would be going to an in state school. She got accepted and received enough funding to make it possible.  It’s been an exciting  few weeks figuring out the details.  We are thrilled and very proud of her.  It’s been my girl’s dream to go off to school in New York City and now it’s actually going to happen!

I’ve settled down a bit and it feels good to be back painting.  I love doing underwater ocean scenes and I just felt like painting a serene sea turtle.  I hope all are having a peaceful happy season.

Purchase the print here:  Shining Sea Turtle

Turtle Point – Hawaii

Turtle Point – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

Last April we were in Hawaii for my nephew’s wedding.   His wife is from the Big Island and they had a lovely outdoor ceremony on a bluff  overlooking the water right before sunset.  The spot was called Turtle Point.  Just below was a cove where we actually snorkeled and saw sea turtles swimming.  That was very exciting for me because I had done this painting for their wedding gift and had also painted another sea turtle earlier but had never seen one swimming in the water before.  They were very gentle creatures moving about peacefully.

I had fun painting these turtles, I wanted my nephew and his wife to have a nice memory of their amazing wedding and also have it be something their future children might look at and think about their parent’s wedding.  My parents had a hand-painted  plate of pretty delicate love birds with the date of their wedding that they  had received as a wedding gift.  It always hung above the kitchen door.  I loved that plate and it  helped me to remember their wedding anniversary date.

Honu is the Hawaii word for the sea turtle and on the Big Island, there are  images of sea turtles everywhere.  The honu is revered as a sacred symbol of life force.  Hawaii is a such a unique and beautiful place.    They say the South is friendly but  in my opinion Hawaiians top  Southerners.  They were so open hearted, kind and relaxed.  The spectacular natural beauty of the Big Island was breath taking.  I  hope to return one day.

Turtle Point painting  print available here.

Turtle Point photo by Mike Kunze

Sea Turtle photo by Mike Kunze