Sea Creatures

I began with the idea of large flowers (sunflowers, helenium, marigolds, asters) in full circular form, on a grid of 3 by 4 squares, bright colors, like an afghan or a quilt. I may still do that. But the muse seemed to take over during the research phase and I was suddenly into sea creatures. I ended up with a folder called “Fantastic Fish” on my PC - though many of the residents of that folder are definitely not fish, and the majority of the creatures in the piece are not fish. But they are all of the sea. Everything fell into place ridiculously easily, almost like I wasn’t having to do the driving. This is usually a sign to me that something more is up than just a painting.

It wasn’t too far into the layout stage (line drawing below) when I realized this piece was not mine, it belonged to a boy I know who loves sea creatures. I reached out to his mom and dad to be sure that would be OK and found out that they would love to have the painting, and that they had just done his “big boy room.” He talks about many of these creatures. I found out later that his dad has been a huge salt-water tank creator, so the obsession seems to run in the family.

Then, during the couple of weeks of watercolor and ink and pencil work, I was nudged to do some fairly large ink drawings on watercolor paper, so he could color up and hang his own interpretations. Those cut-outs are also below. He got them yesterday - I can’t wait to see what he and his parents do with the whole thing.

18 x 24 inches - watercolor, ink, and colored pencils on Arches 140 lb hot press paper.