A chance to experience an ocean in all its ups and downs, sure, who wouldn’t want to participate as a oceanography student and an artist on the University of WA’s Visions 21 cruise aboard the R/V Thompson? I am an on-location artist who usually paints on land, feet planted, along rivers, beaches and in mountains, and saw this as an amazing opportunity to use my skills in seeing color, pattern, texture to portray this complex ocean ecosystem. Days aboard were spent working along with ocean scientists and students in sorting through samples, in the labs, and in viewing the sea floor remotely, recording and taking screenshots as the ROV Jason traversed the deep sea floor and surveyed hydrothermal vents, sea critters, and while the engineers worked on the equipment of the Regional Cabled Array off our NW Pacific coast. I set my easel up on deck, as well as painted in Jason’s control van during the dives. Below are several paintings and drawings done while aboard and afterwards.
All images and text copyright property of Catherine Gill. Contact author for permission to use any images or text.
