Whale safari
Three encounters with the animals of the northern sea
Arctic adventure 05
Northern Norway
The waters off the coast of Northern Norway are teeming with life. Orcas hunt in groups along the fjords. Humpback whales surface in wide, open bays to breathe. One moment a tail fin or a dorsal fin breaks the surface; the next, a large marine mammal leaps out of the water with its entire massive body. Every encounter is brief and unforgettable, and no two are the same.
A whale safari is the polar opposite of a quiet day in Lapland. You scan the horizon for hours whilst the boat hums beneath you, and then, in a single second, it’s all hands on deck! The first orca has been spotted, and then it disappears again. My ‘Whale Safari’ artworks come to life because I hold on to that second for much longer than the memory actually lasted.
Arctic adventure
A whale from the shore
I must be honest about this from the outset. I have never been on a whale-watching trip myself. My most profound experiences of the North have come, winter after winter, in Finnish Lapland, far from the coast. But the sea kept drawing me back, and on the road along the Norwegian coast I once saw a dark shape tumbling through the water off the southern coast, on my way back from a trip to the Lofoten Islands.
Watching a whale from the shore is not the same as watching one from a small boat, close to the water, with all that depth beneath you. That distance between what I have experienced and what I long for is precisely what these three illustrations are about.
Arctic Adventures · Whale safari
All three featured works are available as premium illustrations on art blocks, metal plates, and acrylic glass prints.
Discover the collection in the shop
Featured artworks
Three ways in which a whale surfaces
I have captured this adventure in three illustrations, each showing a completely different way in which a whale surfaces. Together, they fully embody Nordic art: three magical, extreme landscapes, in each of which nature reclaims its rightful place. Wild and spectacular, calm and still, or framed by the endless light of the Norwegian summer.
Arctic Twilight: a wild encounter
A tranquil Arctic evening descends upon the fjord. The sky glows in soft shades of orange and pink as the sun disappears behind the rugged mountains, and the sea grows darker, holding onto the last light of the day. Then the silence is broken. Three orcas slice through the mirror-smooth water, one of them shooting upwards in a huge fountain of water.
Arctic Twilight. Three orcas in the last light of a Norwegian fjord.
Calm Spring: a quiet encounter
A glorious spring morning in Northern Norway. The sun hangs high above the fjords and the sea lies as smooth as glass beneath a vast Nordic sky. In the distance, a humpback whale raises its tail fin into the light, whilst two orcas swim alongside, hunting together in the still water. This is a whale safari featuring a quiet encounter. In spring, the landscape is still slowly awakening, and the calm water reflects that same slow awakening. A reminder that whales are usually felt before they are seen.
Calm Spring. A humpback and two orcas hunting together in the mirror-still water of a spring fjord.
Midnight Sun: an encounter under the endless light
During the long northern summer, the sun never sets completely. The horizon glows in warm shades of orange and yellow, the sea turns to fire and the mountains lie low on the horizon. A humpback whale leaps out of the water in a wide arc, whilst a second raises its tail fin into the golden glow of the sunset. This is the magic of the Arctic summer, the hour when day and night merge into one another. A reminder that the northern sea reveals its wonders in every season.
Midnight Sun. Two humpbacks in the golden light of the endless Norwegian summer, one breaching, one lifting its fluke.
Scuba diving
A humpback whale and an orca that recur in various illustrations
If you look closely, you’ll see a resemblance. The humpback whale in this collection is related to the one in my illustration ‘Scuba Diver and Humpback Whale’, and an orca also reappears from my ‘Orca’ piece.
As a digital illustrator, you can extract a layer from one drawing and edit it in the next, so that a shape you’ve drawn once can travel further and find a new home. Here, it swam from the underwater world to the whale safaris of ‘Arctic Adventures’.
Frequently asked questions
When can you see whales in Northern Norway?
Whales follow the herring. Along the north coast, around Tromsø, Skjervøy and Alta, orcas and humpback whales gather from late October to late January to feed on herring. This is the best-known winter safari, accompanied by snow, short days and, if you’re lucky, the Northern Lights. But the dates are never fixed: some years the whales leave as early as the end of January, whilst in other years they stay until February.
Further south, around Andenes and the Vesterålen Islands, things are different. Deep water lies close to the coast, and sperm whales can be seen there all year round, alongside humpback whales, orcas, minke whales and dolphins, with numbers peaking in summer. That is the midnight sun safari, and it is the light that runs through my third illustration.
Which sea mammals might you spot in the Norwegian fjords?
I have only drawn the humpback whale and the orca. As well as these two large marine mammals, sperm whales, fin whales, minke whales, pilot whales, white-beaked dolphins and porpoises also live off the Norwegian coast.
So there are far more marine mammals than you might expect. I had to do my own research on this before I started. I wanted to include the right animals in the right season in my Whale Safari collection. I've drawn them carefully rather than based on a vague idea and this also allowed me to answer the question of when you can see whales in Northern Norway.
Arctic Adventures
Next Adventure
Sea Kayaking (coming soon)
Arctic Adventures · Whale safari
DISCOVER THE COLLECTION
Experience the northern seas and their whales through three tranquil encounters, as seen through the artist’s eyes. Wild and spectacular, calm and still, or bathed in the endless light of a Norwegian summer.
All three featured works are available as premium illustrations on art blocks, metal plates, and acrylic glass prints.
Discover the collection in the shop