Kelp Forest

Kelp Forest (30″ x 40″ oil on canvas)

I so enjoyed creating my recent small kelp painting that I really wanted to do a large scale piece. This allowed me to look at some elements of the scene in a lot more detail such as the foreground sea anemones that look so much like flowers. Working at a larger scale also gives much more scope for large brush strokes and creating an enveloping atmosphere. I love the seal that gazes outward, calmly curious about us, the viewer.

Here are a few details to give a better sense of the texture and brushwork.

Lower right – sea anemones

Lower left – kelp and fishies

Top – light filters down

Right side – seal gazes outward

(C) 2023 Hilary Farmer

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Kelp

“Kelp” (8″ x 10″ oil on panel)

I have been drawn to paint underwater scenes lately. Too bad I couldn’t paint plein air down there! Anyway, this is a study for a larger piece that I am now working on. I’ve also been creating work for a multi-artist show of small works and a commission too so definitely busy.

Hope the early days of the New Year are keeping you inspired!

(C) 2023 Hilary Farmer

Sea urchins

Sea urchins (8″ x 8″ oil on raised gesso board)

This is part of another tidal pool. (I’ve painting a couple before – like this one.) There are always fascinating creatures to see. I love how the sea urchins look like purple flowers.

Tom’s delightful poem was inspired by my painting and also this little video that shows the life cycle of the sea urchin …I had no idea!

A journey of a thousand leagues
once ended on this rocky beach
where larvae lost and sore fatigued
sank below while seagulls screeched
and minnows darted as the waves
swept the larvae, small and brave
across the reefs to sheltered spots
where they clung to fecund rocks
so ripe with seaweed, all they need
to grow into an urchin there
protected by their spiky hair
until it’s time for them to breed
and send new larvae on their quest
for distant shores on stormy crests.

image (c) 2020 Hilary Farmer
poem (c) 2020 TJ Radcliffe

o fishy fish…

just swimmin' around

A recent computer drawing I did trying to achieve a more painterly effect. For some reason I really enjoy creating underwater images even though I don’t scuba dive etc. I have snorkelled (once) and found it fascinating. Perhaps it is time to try that again!

UPDATE: New sonnet from Tom for the fish to swim by…

The blue-green waters fade away to black
Sun’s light above, eternal dark below
The tide in flood will soon be running slack
Until the ebb responds to “to” with “fro”.
Between the light and dark, the flood and ebb
Long kelpen fronds embrace the living sea
Deep in their midst the fishes lurk, the web
of Ocean catches them and sets them free.
They serve no master, make no war or cause
Just swim along through Ocean’s lighted pasture
Tigers of the sea bereft of claws
Riding tides twixt triumph and disaster.
Behold the fish in all its fishy ways
Living life in peaceful sunlit days.

Copyright (C) 2011 TJ Radcliffe

image (cc) 2011 Hilary Farmer

kelp dreams…

kelp forest... well, glade

More water and creatures… hope you like!

UPDATE: From Tom in the comments a lovely poetic evocation of exactly the feeling I was trying to achieve with the image…

Follow down to twilight dusk
where the fish and kelp-crabs dwell
past the shipwreck’s empty husk
deep beneath the surface swell

Out of airy sunlit waters
down to where the holdfasts cling
where abyssal secret creatures
listen as the mermaids sing

Here beneath the floating fronds
live the denizens of yore
letting slip the surly bonds
protected from the tidal bore

Tangled in the kelpen strands
catching plankton from the flow
that rises up from secret lands
deeper darkness down below

Caught between the day and night
living balanced on the tide
neither of the dark nor light
here they live and here they hide

From the pirate gulls above
from the Krakens of the deep
safe in Ocean’s boundless love
safe within this cloistered keep

Copyright (C) 2010 Tom Radcliffe

image (cc) 2010 Hilary Farmer