Celebrating Life in the Sea

 Painting colorful underwater subjects is an expression of my love and respect for our oceans.
Finding inspiration and then creating works of art is a problem often faced by artists.  My inspiration comes from the underwater photos I take as reference material of the sea life, fishes and corals.  I then let the subjects dictate if the piece will work better in watercolor or oil paints.  The transparency of watercolor's on the smooth surface of hot pressed paper may be what is needed for the delicate shape of a triggerfish or the heavier application of oil paints on canvas for the bulkier body of an octopus or shark.

When people see my art, I would like for them to feel happy and invigorated by the bright colors I use and to feel, if just for a moment, that they have entered this beautiful underwater worlk and become a part of my adventures.

A delicate balance exists between our lives and with that of the oceans.  Educating and increasing public awareness through my art is my mission to get people to think about the health and survival of our oceans for future generations to enjoy.

Gidgets, Widgets and Gadgets

(OceanColorsSmallPaintings)

I have been wondering for weeks just how to get my blog entries to go to Facebook.  I have poked, prodded and twinged everything I could in my blog dashboard, but to no avail.

Then I noticed a few days that a friend of mine, Carrie Jacobson, did exactly what I wanted to do with her blog ( carriejacobson.blogspot.com ), so I emailed her. After a few back and forth emails, she decided to phone me.

Here was how our conversation went:

Me: How did you do that?

Carrie: Hmmmm. Let's seeeee... I don't really remember. I have no idea where that thing was. It was on a page with tabs on it, I remember that.

Me: Dashboard?

Carrie: Dashboard? Maybe. The place where you can design your stuff. Is that Dashboard?

Me: I don't know. I don't see it in Dashboard 
 
Carrie: Well, its probably not on the Dashboard.  Maybe its where you make a new posting.  Yes, there it is ! See the tabs ?  Click on the one that says Amend or Arrange or something.  Then look down near the bottom, about halfway, for a button thing that gets you to the doodad or something like that.
 
Me: The gizmos?
 
Carrie: The widgets.
 
Me:  The gadgets?
 
Carrie:  Look there. Look for something that says 'edit', then hit it and a box will pop up, with a whole lot of other gizmos you can have, and the Facebook one is there.
 
And the conversation went on like this for a few minutes more.  Somehow, through all that clatter and nonsense chatter and laughter, we understood each other and I accomplished my feat.  Now if I can just do it again !!
 
Life is like that sometimes. We stumble, bumble and fumble through it, wondering how we did it in the first place.  But that is what makes it all interesting.

Sketchbook Tour 2011 entry

And yet another page for my sketchbook,  http://www.arthousecoop.com/projects/sketchbookproject