Tidewater Art Studio
Victoria, Bc
Marine Woodcarvings by Dennis Drechsler
I started carving in the mid 1980’s in Edmonton, Alberta. It began as an after work hobby and a fun activity on the weekends. It wasn’t until we moved to Victoria BC in 1990 that I started to get serious and began to purchase better carving tools and spend more time carving. Living on the west coast and next to the ocean gave me an opportunity to go whale watching and I started making patterns for Killer Whales to carve. Soon, whales and dolphins became the focus of my carving time as I had heard of very few carvers who were carving marine mammals.
I have always kept track of the carvings I have done and all are numbered and signed. Most of them are whales and dolphins but I also do the occasional carving of a group of miniature flying seabirds. Bird carvers spend a lot of time texturing and detailing feathers on their life size creations but I don’t have the patience to do it and I find the miniature seabirds don’t need all that fine detail. And the whales are fun because they don’t have feathers so I can concentrate on poses and mounts.
I hope you go through the website, and if you are a carver, perhaps the marine carvings I do will give you some ideas. If you don't carve but have one or two woodcarvings as art or in your collection, perhaps the carvings featured here will get you thinking about adding a whale or dolphin carving to your home.
I hope you enjoy looking at them!
Dennis Drechsler
Marine Woodcarver
e-mail: whalecarvings@shaw.ca or ddrex@shaw.ca
