Palette knife Queen Angelfish

While working on a new 12"x12" painting on Thursday of a Queen Angelfish, I had one of my larger bristle brushes between my teeth sideways. The brush was loaded with beautiful bright cadmium yellow oil paint. As Murphy's law would have it, I dropped the brush right smack dab onto my nearly finished painting. Instead of brushing out the blob of paint and risking smearing it around, I took a small palette knife and tried to lift it off. In the process, it made a very cool mark on the fish. Even though it would mean changing the order of how I had originally painted it, I decided to keep going with it and see what would happen. I ended up re-working the whole painting and am actually ok with the results.

I wish I had had time to take a photo of the first version before the brush fell on it so that you could see the comparison.

Queen Angelfish, 12"x12" oil painting, $140.00, http://www.bonnielynnsart.com/OceanColorsNewestPaintings.html To purchase, email me at dvrbon@wi.rr.com

Scuba diving and my art

Art has been something that has been a part of my life since childhood. I would fill up school notebooks with doodling and spend hours drawing objects around the house. I never had a formal art lesson until Senior year of high school, at which time I learned to use different mediums.........paints, pastels, charcoal. I continued to play with these mediums for years drawing and painting mostly landscapes, and then at the age of 37, I went to college and received a degree in fine art.

During that same time, I received my scuba certification which also took my art down a different avenue. On seeing the iridescent blues and greens of the Queen Angelfish, the brilliant yellows of a Butterfly Fish, and the purples, oranges, pinks and reds of sea fans, corals and sea stars, it reminded me of a child's scattered box of crayons and I knew that I had to get what I was seeing onto canvas.

My husband bought me a Nikonos V camera and I started to take tons of photos, not for their quality, but for reference. I always keep a sketchbook packed in with my diving equipment and on coming up from dives, I do quick ink sketches to keep myself refreshed of what I have just seen underwater. Back from my trips and in the comfort of my sun lit studio, I transfer my sketches and underwater photos into brilliantly colored watercolors or oil paintings. I don't paint in an Impressionistic, Realistic or Abstract style. I think of "style" as a relative term and I have developed one that allows me to "recreate" the underwater world as I see it in my mind.

I am an adventure seeker by nature. I like to invite challenge and conquest to my life. My marine art is a celebration of the sea. I hope to draw attention through my art to the health and survival of our oceans for future generations to enjoy. I hope that I can make a difference.........by increasing awareness and education through my art the delicate balance that exists between our lives with that of the oceans.

Life is precious.......on land or under the sea.