Painting fish & other marine creatures
Why do you paint fish and sea creatures?
I love scuba diving and am an artist inspired by the sea.
I believe I have a responsibility to share this passion for the ocean and marine creatures in order to spark interest in this wonderful part of our planet.
Why? Well, 70% of our planet is covered in water and estimates are that 80%-95% of the oceans remain unexplored. Considering these statistics, and how few of the world population have ever been snorkelling or scuba diving, wouldn’t you agree?
Also, I paint them because many of these creatures are bizarre, seem ‘out of this world’, contain an amazing array of colours and textures (think fish scales, coral polyps, octopi and flamboyant cuttlefish), and are just so cool!
How can I learn more about the ocean?
Go snorkelling or scuba diving - take a fish ID course or get a waterproof ID book to take with you.
Watch a documentary - there are so many to choose from I won’t list all the ones I’ve watched!
Search online - there are so many free resources online for you to read and videos to watch.
Read Life on an Ocean Planet or the PADI Encyclopedia which is based on the former.
Follow wildlife photographers on social media - so many of them provide facts alongside their photos.
Which are your favourite marine creatures?
As you might have guessed from my logo and my Instagram page, hermit crabs are one of my favourites. They come in all shapes and sizes and move so quickly across the sand! As a child, dolphins were my favourite animal, but I’m yet to paint them as an adult (I’ll have to fix that soon!)
Here are some more of my favourites: nudibranch, christmas trees (one of my first loves when I started scuba diving), boxfish, trunkfish, pufferfish (and anything considered an ‘odd-shaped swimmer’), flounder, octopus (I urge you to watch My Octopus Teacher if you haven’t already), squid and manta rays.
If you like the sound of these, take a look at my full Ocean Collection here:
