Coral Reef Paintings

Paintings

Visit a rainforest and it will take days before the wall of detail around you begins to resolve into recognisable patterns. People who live in such environments display what seems a miraculous ability to pinpoint individual animals and plants in this mass of detail but this is no different really than a city dweller being able to zero in on a small road sign driving down a busy urban street. Over the past 30 years I have spent countless hours underwater, studying, photographing and drawing reefs around the world. My panoramic coral reef paintings aim to bring this intimacy with the underwater environment to an audience who cannot perhaps attain it otherwise.

What at first view may be a straightforward underwater reef scene, rewards the patient viewer with layer upon layer of hidden life. There is great detail in my work but it has been organised to try and allow underlying structure to reveal itself.. These large paintings are depictions of the ecology of the reef and the time I have spent in their preparation, weeks on end in the field observing and recording and then months, sometimes years, in the studio painting is contained within them.

My panoramic coral reef scenes

My panoramic coral reef scenes show in detail the reef itself, they are very precise records of the corals and other sessile animals present at the time I drew them. The fishes and other more mobile animals I have shown as far as possible in the abundance and positions they were also found in at the time. I am attempting to show, to the extent I am able, how and where they live, their interactions and habits and the rhythms and relationships of life itself to materialise. This means that the painting is not a snapshot of a particular moment, rather a depiction of what is going on over time in this environment. Of course it isn’t possible for me to capture all of this, the coral reef is far too complex and changeable, but I want to give the viewer the feeling of being there and seeing what is happening on the reef.

My panoramic coral reef scenes

My panoramic coral reef scenes show in detail the reef itself, they are very precise records of the corals and other sessile animals present at the time I drew them. The fishes and other more mobile animals I have shown as far as possible in the abundance and positions they were also found in at the time. I am attempting to show, to the extent I am able, how and where they live, their interactions and habits and the rhythms and relationships of life itself to materialise. This means that the painting is not a snapshot of a particular moment, rather a depiction of what is going on over time in this environment. Of course it isn’t possible for me to capture all of this, the coral reef is far too complex and changeable, but I want to give the viewer the feeling of being there and seeing what is happening on the reef.

On a more technical note

The first stage in creating the paintings is to transfer the underwater drawing of the reef onto a canvas, usually I photograph the drawing and project the image, tracing basic outlines and areas of shadow onto the canvas. Then I begin painting by establishing the overall background colour which is really the colour of the water itself.

Then I work gradually toward the foreground, the challenge here is maintaining the gradually changing palette, from almost all blue towards almost normally perceived colours. The underwater effect always removes the warmest colours, reds and oranges, first so no matter the depth there is always some difference and the deeper the reef the less of these colours are visible.

Colour in my painting comes from memory and selected photos from the hundreds I have taken during the underwater site drawing process. By happy accident a few of these will capture the colours of the reef as any snorkeller or diver might see it, under natural light, with the normal effects of colour absorption by the water.

The fish and other transient life are overlaid once the reef structure has been established. Mainly because the reef itself dictates where these animals are found and it is better to allow this to happen, a more natural process in some ways. Often I will make a separate drawing of the fish on drafting film, cut it out and move it around till the right “fit” is found. This is where the painting really comes to life and populating the reef scene in this way is an enormous pleasure.

What at first view may be a straightforward underwater reef scene, rewards the patient viewer with layer upon layer of hidden life. There is great detail in my work but it has been organised to try and allow underlying structure to reveal itself.. These large paintings are depictions of the ecology of the reef and the time I have spent in their preparation, weeks on end in the field observing and recording and then months, sometimes years, in the studio painting is contained within them.