World Turtle Day

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Today is World Turtle Day and I wanted to celebrate it for several reasons.

First I had access to a wonderful photograph taken by two wonderful friends of mine, on a dive they did in Flynn Reef (The Great Barrier Reef), Australia.

It is the first time I have ever attempted to paint an ocean creature, let alone a turtle and I was really curious to take my eyes on a journey into this underwater world of colours and textures.

I also recently watched a powerful documentary called Seaspiracy which completely threw open the door to the devastating impact that Industrial fishing is having on our oceans and the wildlife within them, turtles being one of many species affected.

Recent stats show that 500,000 sea turtles are caught each year as bycatch (unintended catch).

This fella here is a Green Turtle and on the endangered species list. Along with the dangers of fishing nets, their eggs are overharvested, adults are hunted for their parts and as a source of food, and they are gradually losing their beach nesting sites.

Painting this turtle gave me 9 hours to truly study this extraordinary animal who was anything but just green. The complex mix of colours I discovered were out of this world. And I have just learned that green turtles get their name from the greenish colour of their cartilage and fat, not their shells, which makes sense!

I invite you to have a look at the sped up timelapse below, which condenses this 9 hour voyage into just under 9 minutes. I hope it will give you something of the experience I enjoyed in painting this picture.

If you haven’t done so already, I really urge you to watch Seaspiracy (on Netflix) and think about the way we can all help to counteract the powerful and sinister forces of industrialised fishing.