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Painting Fish…

I started painting fish every time I got stuck during painting my landscape paintings. The fish paintings provide a freedom like no other. As I paint fish, I let go of everything around me. When I paint fish, I am in my zen place. I allow myself to make mistakes, fix them, paint over them, move the oil around the canvas till I have arrived at the solution that makes sense for my painting. I learn and grow with each painting. I begin with my reference photo and allow myself to move as close to or as far away from the details imprinted on the photograph I took. I have come to collect a library of my photographs from koi ponds and aquariums so much so that these photos have produced literal mugshots of the various fish personalities that have evolved in my paintings. I call them my models and actors.

As a process, I take snapshots of my paintings along the way from beginning to end. Looking back on these, it's interesting to see the painting evolve. You can see the progress and the modifications. It is especially great to see what was working and what was not. At times this helps me see when I have lost the essence of what worked two frames ago. These process snapshots become great teaching tools for me to revisit. I can see when I could have kept my paintings looser and when I have gone too far.  Here is a process sheet of one of my most recent koi paintings.