Aquaria – Exhibit – Aug 1-31, 2025 – New Hampshire Art Association
136 State Street, Portsmouth, NH 03801
Aquaria – Artist Statement
The gridlock of carriages, exuberant children, sluggish crowds—I happily wade through it all for the beautiful silence I feel looking deep into the New England Aquarium.
Growing up sailing the coast of Maine on a small wooden sloop, I developed a reasonable fear of the ocean. It’s mostly dark and cold, and the surface is unpredictable and lethal. But the aquarium removes all that, offering a fantasy where unlikely cohabitants circle each other like monks. From a cozy niche, I assign personas, invent relationships between fish, and imagine what it’s like to fly through water.
Painting these underwater scenes in oil reminds me how little carries over from plein air work. Light behaves differently. The atmosphere drops off suddenly. Shadows are saturated with color. Thick glass refracts every edge. Most subjects are in motion; others hide, pretending to be something else. And the scale is disorienting—with turtles the size of my first car.
Back home at the easel, reliving the aquarium’s magic, I realize I’m just as excited as the shrieking kid in a stroller.