Coral Garden

Acrylic on canvas.

Shelly Man

Shelly Manne was a jazz drummer who died in 1984; this shelly man is, again, from a portrait by Tintoretto of a nobleman (aka rich bastard). Of course, the original had no shells.

Renaissance or Baroque Rock Cod

Rock cod (or is it a scorpion fish?), shells, reeds and Tintoretto as a young man (why is he in there?).

The Big Shell is Back!

Had an appointment the other day with the surgeon who implanted my new ceramic and titanium hip just over six weeks ago. He says I may have to wait another couple of months before I can resume diving! Aarggh!
Tintoretto again with a large shell, small shells, a scorpion fish and a blue tropical fish.
Pen, ink, brush, watercolour, gouache.

Smaller Shells

Another Tintoretto motif combined with seaweed and smaller shells all grouped together). The figure is from a Tintoretto painting called Christ Amongst the Doctors. Pen, ink, watercolour.

Shell Motif Explored Further part 3

Under a week to go til I see the surgeon who kept me waiting for almost three years to replace my arthritic hip. That'll be six weeks after the operation. I should be walking by then but it's still a slow process to getting back to normal. One of the first questions I'll ask the surgeon is when I can dive again. I'll certainly follow the experts' advice - I'd hate to have to go through all this again if my hip got dislocated and it wouldn't be worth getting back in the underwater world before my hip was completely ready for it. I can almost walk without crutches and actually managed to do that yesterday in my first session in the hydrotherapy pool. It was great to immerse myself in water again - the water allows you to walk without crutches, which was a weird feeling after 5 weeks of crutch use.
This drawing (pen, ink, watercolour, gouache, pencil, charcoal) one has all sorts of weird motifs and ideas: many of the faces and figures come from a book about Tintoretto's art and life but there are also Jelly Roll Morton and another jazz cat (Teddy Hill I think) plus a dog by Bassano. There's also some seaweed and a starfish leg.

Shell Motif Explored Further part 2

This one has less in the way of underwater motifs, except for the shell. The figures/faces are from a book about the history of photography except for the prone figure on bottom left which is another lift from a Tintoretto painting (not sure why I'm obsessed with Tintoretto at the moment!).

Shell Motif Explored Further part 1

This one uses the shell motif, plus faces inspired by Donald Friend (face at left), Tintoretto (two faces on the right side) and maybe an early Rembrandt self-portrait, plus a weird-looking fish. Like the previous shell pic, this one was made with pen, ink, watercolour, gouache and charcoal.