more sea tales

Here are some more test prints for my 'sea tales' series. The first one has a slightly sinister story behind it. As a child in the 60's and 70's there was a strange little character on the TV, and to this day I don't know if it was a programme or a film. Anyway, this small male leprachaun like character lived in a whelk shell. For some reason I found him very scary indeed and recall having more than one nightmare about him. I have created a much more benign character in this print, my hermit is quietly reading. The spanish dancer is my interpretation of the largest type of nudibranc (or sea slug). I've been lucky enough to see a few of these whilst diving, and they are quite exquisite. Free swimming in open water, I can understand how they got their colloquial name.

The next print is of a frog fish and an unsuspecting victim. These really are clever fish - they have a lure somewhere above their eyes which they wave around to attract 'food'. They are also known as anglerfish, which is a better description. They don't tend to move around a lot, although I have seen some swimming. They usually wedge themselves between rocks using their pectoral fins for balance and wait.
Years ago I got to learn alot about seahorses as I designed a website for a seahorse charity. I've got quite good at spotting them now underwater - they don't often look this 'perky'! For the most part they cling onto a piece of sea grass and sort of flop, oh and turn the other way if you try to look at them carefully or take a photo! I had the idea of a sort of yin/yang pair of seahorses - I thought it might work graphically with lino. I also checked with Marcel - have we ever seen seahorses use each other to cling on to instead of just sea grass? Apparently yes... and there is a photo somewhere which I'll see if we can find.

My late father was very keen for his eldest daughter to be inducted into the world of science. I have a clear memory of one of the experients he set up one on more than one occasion. In a large glass jar, there was a diver which would slowly rise and fall. Sadly my Dad is no longer around to ask what scientific experiment he had set up here. I don't think it is a Cartesian diver as that involves a plastic bottle. I will do some investigating... I wonder if in some subtle way this got me interested in the world of diving.