Reef Games

Reef Games 1

60" X 80"

Oil on canvas

Reef Games 3

50" X 66"

Oil on canvas

Reef Games 4

60" X 60"

Oil on canvas

The "Reef Games" Paintings were created as a response to my underwater experiences as a scuba diver off the coast of Cozumel and beyond the Out Islands of the Bahama. There I swam with schools of many kinds of fish: silvery baraccuda, colorful parrot fish, Nassau groupers, sting rays, eels and even a large shark fascinated by a shallow hanging air tank.

The paintings begin with an homage to abstract expressionism, but shapes emerge from the swirling colors to identify themselves as marine life struggling free the canvas to complete their necessary movements in the aqueous environment. Patterns of brushstrokes and colors are transformed into recognizeable currents and habitats as I attempted to recreate the beauty and excitement of my underwater experiences.