Lionfish

Pteroia volitans

Even if a Snake is Not Poisonous, it Should Pretend to be Venomous

Story

From a series of photos taken at the Boston Aquarium in 2022. This is a lionfish (genus Pterois) – an amazing and elaborate fish, both venomous and invasive. I had already painted an underwater scene on a large canvas but didn’t know where to go with it. I decided to drop in the rocks, shadow, and lionfish.

This painting will be for sale at the Seacoast Art Association body of work exhibit in February 2024 – $590 framed.

Process

Reference photo:

I love how everything looks blue in the Boston Aquarium. This guy is red, maybe brown in “real life” meaning outside his current real life.

Various stages:

March 2021 – underwater scene. This sat around my studio space for a couple of years.

Blocking in the rocks, the fish shadow, and the lionfish.

One iteration of many. I thought it would be an easy head start with the underwater scene, but it turned out to create different challenges. I had to address the light source not lining up with the fish shadow, too much going on with the water surface and the pronounced river of sand that dominated. Long story short, I cavalierly dropped a coat of ivory black over the whole painting and put the focus back on our venomous invasive friend.