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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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

sea bear!

great big bear, great big sea...

I missed posting last week as I was out of town for a bit and have been very busy preparing the “next big thing” I’ve been working on with Tom Radcliffe – Songs of Albion!! click the link and get a sneak peak into what’s coming… there will be Tom’s prose and poetry along with my images combined into an original story that we hope will enchant… It’s got everything – monsters, fencing, true love… no wait that’s “The Princess Bride”… anyway, there’s everything you could be looking for and lots that you likely haven’t even thought of looking for!! Stay tuned for midsummer…

UPDATE: Tom’s poem for this image! – evocative without giving too much away!

Let us go now, you and I
while the sea is spread beneath the sky
like an enormous body of saline water;
Let us go, through half-remembered sweeps
of currents where the tides run deep
across the bones of sunken wrecks
where ragged claws in scuttling pairs
are heard to whisper, “Do I dare? O do I dare?”

(c) T J Radcliffe 2011

image (cc) 2011 Hilary Farmer

leafy sea dragon – mergirl…

mergirl

A recently viewed image of a leafy sea dragon seems to have inspired this “mergirl” image… I like mer-girl better than mer-maid somehow… anyway, here she is! If you’ve never seen pictures of sea dragons, do google them – they’re pretty amazing looking creatures! Related to sea horses but bigger and well, …leafier! As with sea horse, the sea dragon male carries the fertilized eggs until they hatch – altogether a fascinating species – this concludes your Green Tea Doodles nature special feature. lol

image (cc) 2010 Hilary Farmer