Wyland's Bio

Whales and Wyland, Wyland and Whales. They fit together in a wonderful relationship. Wyland has dedicated his life and his art to the whales, and the whales in turn have received great benefit from Wyland's life and talent.

Wyland has come along in the "nick of time" to bring his message to the world and his help to the whales. This decade and perhaps the next will be the most important for the entire life of the planet, in fact, for life on the planet. Countless thousands of organisms have become extinct in the last half of the 20th century. Luckily there are sustainable populations of some of the most spectacular creatures on earth. However, most of these populations are dangerously low or their habitats are at risk. I include creatures such as the great predators the bears, wolves and cats, the great primates and, of course, the mammals of the sea. 

Everyone knows the saga of the massive whaling industry of the nineteenth century ... slaughter on an industrial scale will destroy it and jeopardize our own future. I include industrial logging, industrial
fishing and industrial agriculture. New technology seems to only encourage a more frantic scraping of the bottom of the barrel of life.

This was true of the so-called great age of whaling, which lasted for only a few short years. I have visited and painted a vast boneyard at a whaling base in the Antarctic, the last fertile "fishing" grounds of this creature. Sonar, faster ships and more deadly guns threatened to wipe out every species of whales. This was an even greater tragedy because of the high intelligence and social structure of these magnificent beings.

In the last quarter of the 20th century an outcry went up against this murderous slaughter. Books, films, articles and speeches were heard on behalf of the whales. Organizations sprang up and legislation was passed for their protection.

Of all of these efforts none has been more monumental than the work of Wyland. His skill, energy and vision combined to bring whales to our attention on a grand scale. Most of us are not lucky enough to have mingled with whales in their own world. I have seen whales of many species in many oceans, from ships, zodiacs and from land. I have even been lucky enough to see an orca from our own window. I have swum with dolphins and sea lions, but never a great whale. 

Wyland takes us into their world, He captures the feeling of the many moods of that world, not only the characteristics of the species, but in some cases, particular individuals. We can see them in movies, or in a book, but nothing compares with his life-size murals. They take us there and put us in our place.

As a painter, I am overwhelmed by the scope and ambition of Wyland's work. To me, the physical difficulty increases logarithmically as the size of the painting increases. I find four small paintings easier than one four times as large. My larger ones, which are a tiny fraction of the size of Wyland's work, require constant standing back to look, every few strokes. I cannot comprehend just starting in on a huge wall and being confined to a scaffold. In oils, watercolours or airbrush, Wyland displays deep knowledge and confidence in both his medium and subject matter.

Beyond this is the force of his personality and enthusiasm. His winning ways bring countless people together to literally transform a city landscape. In doing so he transforms the consciousness of all who see his work. We are lucky he exists ... so are the whales. One of the onlookers at one of his murals says it all... "Awesome!"