Seal Lagoon at Heceta Head
30" x 20" watercolor, 2024
On display in PASSAGE, solo exhibit up thru July 25, 2025 in the Gladys Valley Marine Studies building at Hatfield Marine Science Center, Newport, Oregon. Show catalog link in my bio or visit emilyjungmiller.com/exhibits/passage
Just south of Heceta Head on the central coast of Oregon, there's a pullout on the highway with a great view of Heceta Head lighthouse. At the right-hand corner of the pullout, you can look straight down the cliff to see a hidden, sheltered lagoon full of seals and sea lions. They're graceful acrobats in the water, and it was beautiful to watch them playing in this clear, calm lagoon from above. Sea Lion Caves is just south of here, so there are always plenty of them around.
Heceta Head is the place I chose for an informal memorial in 2022 with just my dad and stepmom, one year after my grandparents' deaths, when it became clear there wouldn't be a larger formal gathering of family and friends. Traveling and gathering safely was still very disrupted due to Covid. We have so many more tools now to keep each other safe than we did three or four years ago. Making use of our affordable access to rapid tests, quality masks, and boosters can still make a huge difference to those most vulnerable in our communities.
In this painting, I added Nootka Rose to the cliffside scrub. It wasn't there, but it's a coastal native that is appropriate to the site. Both my grandmothers loved roses and grew them in their gardens.
I didn't actually discover the seal lagoon until a year after our memorial, when I happened to stand in just the right spot, and looked down. One of the many reasons I love the ocean and the coast - even when you think you know a place, there's always more to discover and delight. ๐ฆญ
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9 months ago
Emily Jung Miller
