APPLEYARD ART - Paintings of Sheffield, Derbyshire, Scotland and Underwater themes

In January 2010 we went to Vilamendhoo to paint underwater. There were sharks, morays and turtles on most dives, along with thousands of fish and crits. The sharks we saw were white tip and black tip reef sharks, and also grey reef sharks, all totally gorgeous!

There are 2 types of fish – the helpful fish and the non helpful fish. Helpful fish stay in sight while I paint them underwater. The second kind let you sketch them and start to paint them, then swim off before they are finished, so I then spend the rest of the dive chasing them around the reef, paints and board in hand, searching for the non helpful fish so I can finish my painting. I only paint underwater, I don’t finish any paintings in the studio, so sometimes I do lots of dives to paint one painting.

The moray I painted was great, a perfect model. I love morays, I find them fascinating, and couldn’t believe how many there were and also the different species. The clownfish were also great to paint and never went far from their anemone home which shelter their young.

The shark was trickier, so I dived at feeding time and there were two swimming around for the entire dive so I was able to paint one. I also enjoyed painting lots of the other fish and corals.

We spent 3 weeks on the island and got loads of dives in, some painting and lots just diving. We saw eagle rays, stingrays and even a whale shark on the surface. The reefs are slowly recovering after El Nino and new corals are growing and are covered with fish life. It’s a great island with amazing diving and I loved every minute of it.

For info on any of these paintings please e-mail me at: caz@appleyard-art.co.uk C