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CHANNEL ISLANDS NATIONAL PARK

Early in my career, I interned with California’s Channel Islands National Park, contributing illustration and exhibit work for the visitor’s center and wayside panels. I collaborated with park rangers, bird biologists, and science illustration colleagues; traveled to the remote islands by boat and plane, and spent days exploring and field sketching on wind-swept cliffs. Though I was the only artist among scientists and park staff, I look back on this internship as one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.

The ashy storm-petrel (illustrated below) has a small population of 10,000 with a limited range. They breed only on 17 islands off the coast of California and Baja, Mexico. Some 50% of them breed in the Channel Islands. They nest in rock crevices along cliffs or in sea caves, and feed on krill, squid, and small fish. Ashy storm-petrels can live to 34 years old.

Painting of an ashy storm-petrel (Oceanodroma homochroa) nesting in a crevasse. Acrylics on illustration board.
Ashy storm-petrel (Oceanodroma homochroa) nesting in a crevice. Acrylics on illustration board.

The Channel Islands are home to many rare and endemic species, making it a vital area for conservation. The island loggerhead shrike is endemic to Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz islands in the northern Channel Islands, and Catalina Island in the south.

Painting of island loggerhead shrike (Lanius ludovicianus anthonyi) on island ironwood (Lynothamnus floribundus ssp. aspleniifolius). Both species are endemic to the Channel Islands National Park. Acrylic on illustration board.
Island loggerhead shrike (Lanius ludovicianus anthonyi) on island ironwood (Lynothamnus floribundus ssp. aspleniifolius). Acrylic on illustration board.

Scripps’s murrelet (formerly Xantus’s murrelet) is among the world’s rarest seabirds and the Channel Islands are home to a third of its nesting population.

Scripps's murrelet (Synthliboramphus scrippsi). Pen and ink on illustration board.
Scripps’s murrelet (Synthliboramphus scrippsi). Pen and ink.

Here’s some additional illustrations I rendered in pen-and-ink on illustration board.

Sunburst anemone (Anthopleura sola). Pen-and-ink on illustration board.
Sunburst anemone (Anthopleura sola).
Mussels (Mytilus californianus). Pen-and-ink on illustration board.
Mussels (Mytilus californianus).
Barnacles (Balanus sp.). Pen-and-ink on illustration board.
Barnacles (Balanus sp.).
Shore crab (Pachygrapsus crassipes). Pen-and-ink on illustration board.
Shore crab (Pachygrapsus crassipes).
Pen-and-ink illustration of a humpback whale breaching near Anacapa Island.
A humpback whale breaches near Anacapa Island. Pen-and-ink on scratchboard.

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