Mr & Mrs Red, The Reds

Title: Mr. & Mrs. Red, The Reds
Medium: Acrylic on custom-cut wood panel
Artist: Dan Coe, 2025

Two vivid sockeye salmon—one male, one female—meet eye to eye in the shallow current of a clear Alaskan stream. Their vibrant red bodies and olive-green heads cut sharply against the smooth, mottled river stones, rendered with bold, tactile brushwork and luminous highlights. The rippling water overhead is stylized in rhythmic blue and brown bands, adding motion and a dreamlike quality to the composition. Leafy greens crown the top edge, rooting the scene in its natural cycle. The custom-cut panel mirrors the organic flow of water and stone, making the piece feel sculptural, like a living fragment of streambed.

This painting captures more than just a spawning pair—it honors the salmon’s iconic role in Alaskan life and ecology, embodying connection, instinct, and return.

This painting is on 1/2" MDO plywood measuring 34"x22" rendered in Acrylic paint.

Displayed at The Kannery in Homer, Alaska, https://www.thekannery.com/