American Fisher
This commissioned painting is for Olympic National Park for use as the summer 2008 park newspaper cover (100,000 copies) and interpretive exhibits. The last Olympic fisher was trapped about 50 yrs ago, leaving an empty ecological niche. ONP is releasing 100 of these animals in a re-population plan. About the size of a large housecat, fishers hunt small birds and rodents.
I painted this scene at about the place the first group were released, the Elwha River Valley. The models for the trilliums were from our own backyard, and so is the cone midden the junco is messing about in. The junco could have been here too, if it had stood still long enough.
Because of the interest in this project, we decided to offer high-quality giclee prints of the fisher painting. Here’s the fisher link and easy buying info.