Fish & Water

Fishes in Waterweeds

What is it like for Fish in the pond, the lake, their own element? I jumped in to find out as I followed these fish into their word and watched them feeding in the depths. I didn’t have a snorkel or scuba gear, I followed them in my mind’s vision only and discovered a world brilliant and enormous in their eyes, so I painted it big. Unframed. 4ft by 5ft. (48×60).

Tilapia Farm

It hit me right away, the limited palate in reality, from this newspaper photo of a Tilapia fish farm. Wow, purple and green. That was a challenge I wanted to meet, so I set about capturing the fish surfacing for feed through the water as their heads poked above the surfaces. I framed it in a gilt gold frame because I liked the color balance and the juxtaposition of the grand against the mundane Acrylic on canvas. Framed. 43×30.

Tilapia Farm inspiration photo

Fish

I love the fluidity of water and fish and the random movement that can affect one fish. Will there be a right angle crash? Are they on the same plane? Oh, no, I don’t think fish ever crash into one another, they just navigate in grace with their hidden sonar. Acrylic on canvas. Framed. 26.5×20.

California Aqueduct

I think of this as a Highway Painting, the water highway that supplies the farms and cities of our state. It has robbed most of it from the Colorado River and the Owens Valley, yet it peacefully travels in its channels to its destination without the least drop of guilt. The photo in the newspaper was taken on a bright day and the painting started out in bold primary colors with a stark brightness that would have required sunglasses, but the painting said to me, “Calm me down. Soften me.” So I did. lending an overcast autumnal sky that reflects in the aqueduct as it travels towards the distant mountains through the fertile plains. Acrylic on wide wraparound canvas. Painted sides. 24×24.

California Aqueduct Inspiration Photo

Frogs Eye View

How does it feel to be an amphibian? What does it look like to live in two worlds? It must be different than the vision of a non-amphibian. I imagined floating in a lake next to blooming lily pads as I peeked out from the water to see what was happening on the surface. As I frog, I saw amplified colors and a mosquito which I quickly ate. Acrylic on canvas. Framed. 32.5×26

Frogs Eye View inspiration photo

Fish Flowers

This painting began its life as a floral landscape. However, in no time at all, its true beauty revealed itself in an underwater Fish scene.  The Flowers were reimagined and morphed into curious, wide-eyed fish. And the once green grass of a landscaped evolved to that of a flowing waterscape, moving gently with the current in its new environment  I ponder their thoughts as they look at me and I at them… Acrylic on canvas. 32×42 framed. 

Fiji Brilliance

Sometimes the sun is so brightly reflected on the water that you can feel the light penetrate every cell. While on a small boat going to a snorkeling spot, I photographed this intensity of color and brilliant radiance reflected in the water from the stormy sky. I painted the yellow of the sun on the canvas and waited then the almost monochrome sky and sea emerged on top of the brilliance. Oil on narrow wraparound canvas. Painted sides.16×20.

Fiji Brilliance inspiration photo

Hawai’i Path

Pathways are roads for feet and I want to follow this one into the copse to see who is in there. Is it a fisherman or a surfer? Maybe there is a secret village that isn’t kapu. I don’t know, but I want to follow it and see who or what is in there.

Hawai’i Path inspiration photo