Fragile! Handle with care… the Undersea world

While swimming in the Aegean Sea last summer I was inspired to paint a couple of pieces of work. In this first one “Summer Sea” I enjoyed playing with textures, and even included embedded seed heads from a Greek wild flower (Tropopogon). Can you spot the ‘sea urchins’!

Fragility

I have been thinking recently about fragility in the context of our planet and ecosystems, and this was even more evident while swimming in Greece.

Regular readers will know that our human interconnectedness with the natural world underpins my art work.

Simple pleasures.

I am feeling more and more conscious, as I’m sure we all are, about human impact, and am taking steps to reduce my personal footprint…but… I was ‘guilty’  of flights to and from Greece last month.

While there I enjoyed the simple pleasures of family, music (we coincided with the Kardamilly Jazz Festival) and excellent local food!  There was time to reflect too on the impact of tourism development on the local area. It’s low key at present in Stoupa, where we were based with family living there. However the unfinished shells of future properties are scattered along the coast. Will these be a last straw for local infrastructure? The balance of tourism, economy and environment seems about right at present.

Music is a relatively low impact activity, and much enjoyed, along with swimming and painting too of course!.

I recorded the trip in a concertina sketchbook too. ( see link to video below)