Curly sea

canvas, underwater painting

40×50
2018

N/A

Corals are surprisingly whimsical in shape and color. They can’t be compared to anything else on earth. Green coral, like an open cabbage, attracted my creative eye and became the hero of the first painting in my new series. I was working on this story for 4 dives. These were short dives by my standards. Their duration was less than an hour and a half each.

I was swooped by flocks of tropical fish of all colors in this place. That’s why I consider it to be unique. They chased each other merrily, tasted something in the water column, and on the coral. Then they noticed me and started to follow the brush with curiosity.

Sometimes they wanted to swim into the painted corals. Sometimes they even tried to swim into the painted corals. I had to drive away the fish so as not to harm them. There is no better compliment to a painter than a situation when someone takes his painting for reality.

P.S. Artist Olga Belka thanks the «Dolphin Diving Center» in Sharm El Sheikh for the provided conditions for underwater painting.