The fish. No Snorkelers but just the original Fish.

This is an original oil painting.

I recently was able to go to an island, get into the sea, put on a mask and look at the underwater fish and colors and lights bouncing on the ocean floor and truly it is a magical experience. Magical. I have had that opportunity before and remember wanting to paint it back then and did do some that almost got what I wanted, but at the time really struggled with the technical parts of what I was trying to get across.

This time, with more experience as a painter it was an easy transition from what I wanted the pieces to say to what I got on the canvas. I love these. They evolved from very complicated to less and less so as the series went on and I think that is part of my series approach is to continue to work on a subject until it becomes more abstract. At heart I am a colorist and these pieces are SO indicative of this.