Helen Coxhead McFarland: a sketch of a life
By Craig S. Strong and Deborah L. Jaques
All there was
Helen being herself.
All that natural born skill in art
Such familiarity and love for her animals,
with a flair for fantasy!
It comes through, the love of color.
Crossed over 3 July 2024
Helen Coxhead began drawing and painting at an early age, growing up in the Berkley Hills of California. She had a love of nature and animals, especially horses. In 1968, she took a job at the Point Reyes Bird Observatory (PRBO) as a secretary. Little did the organization know upon hiring Helen how much value she would add to that position with her ability to depict seabirds in an accurate and artistic way. Helen contributed many annual report covers for PRBO in the early years (Now Point Blue Conservation Science), and took the “Founders photo” of the first Pacific Seabird Group members. She also created the enduring first logo of PSG, seen in most of the initial annual meeting reports.
Through her association with Dr. David Ainley, Helen had the opportunity to visit many seabird islands during the 1970’s, including Farallon Islands National Wildlife Refuge, Dry Tortugas National Monument in Florida, and islands in the Gulf of California. Always with sketchbooks, and quick to make use of the limited time between research activities.
Helen had an amazing ability to capture the essence of seabirds with a few strokes of the pencil. She sketched the birds “en plein air” to serve as a reference for drawings and paintings to be completed later. Helen paid careful attention to proportions and included written descriptions of colors and textures. Through Helen’s hand, the behaviors and personality of the various species come through in a way that photography does not offer. The features left out or suggested give a lifelike feel to the fleeting moments that Helen was able to capture on the seabird colonies she visited.
PRBO initiated long term research and monitoring of marine birds and mammals on the Farallon Islands in 1972. With Dr. Ainley, Helen was able to visit the remote islands many times to document the seabirds in her own way. She drew from the observation blinds, birds in the hand caught during mist netting, as well as dead birds. Helen was inspired by the abundant wildlife and enthusiastic researchers surrounding her. Helen produced a huge body of work during her time at PRBO, including detailed drawings, graphics for the newsletter and T-shirts, multiple logos, and exquisite watercolor paintings.
An oil spill between two Standard Oil tankers occurred off San Francisco in 1971. This led to the formation of International Bird Rescue and a wave of environmental legislation. The PRBO response included documenting injury and mortality of seabirds on Bay Area beaches, which led to the development of procedures and protocols for standardized beachwalk surveys. Helen contributed illustrations to the first manual used to identify dead birds on beaches, including precise detailed renderings of feet and beaks drawn to scale, to enable identification of birds that were covered in oil, partially scavenged or decomposed. This was a large and innovative effort, and all of Helen’s practice in the field helped pave the way to a successful product (NOAA, Ainley et al. 1994), which was used during oil spills and beached bird monitoring for decades.
Throughout her career, Helen painted grand landscapes and hundreds of watercolor horse and antelope pictures. She started out as a cowgirl and became a good horsewoman, competing in many endurance rides. This was in addition to managing large gardens and running a sheep farm (and weaving her rug designs with the wool). She also designed and printed silkscreen cards throughout her life, assembling over 120 unique designs, all created with colors mixed by hand to her liking. From her tenure with seabirds and seabird islands, Helen created 8 seabird notecards, pictured below. Should PSG members like to purchase cards, all proceeds will be donated to the Pacific Seabird Group travel fund. Contact Craig Strong to purchase cards or to see a larger showing of Helen’s art: strongcraig1@gmail.com.
Reference
Ainley, D.G., R.E. Jones, R. Stallcup, D.J. Long, G.W. Page, L.T. Jones, L.E. Stenzel, R. LeValley, and L.B. Spear, with drawings by S. Webb, H.C. Strong, and D.J. Long. 1993. Beached Marine Birds and Mammals of the North American West Coast: A revised guide to their census and identification, with supplemental keys to beached sea turtles and sharks. NOAA Gulf of the Farallones Nat. Marine Sanctuary. Report no. 1443-CX-0184-93-01. 236 p.
