Whale Shark
« From his youth spent on the beaches of Long Island USA, Richard Ellis, born in 1938, has been deeply involved with the sea and the animals that live in it. As a marine biologist, he brings to his art a unique respect and understanding for the ocean.
In order to portray the fishes, whales and sharks that he does well, he has studied them from every vantage point.
Trained as a scuba diver [oh yeah] and an underwater photographer, Richard Ellis has spent hundreds of hours in, on, and under the ocean, in search of his subjects and the accurate representation of their environment.
Hours of painstaking research go into each painting, so that his work is not only scientifically accurate, but strikingly beautiful as well.
For him there is no distinction between art and illustration. [Interesting.]
A painting done to illustrate a magazine article will often end up in a prestigious private collection or in a museum.
Because his work is so precise, it has been used to fulfill the demanding requirements of scientific papers, but his sense of the quality of luminescent underwater light and composition are so dramatic that his paintings transcend illustration and become art in its purest sense.
In 1974, Richard Ellis spent one year researching the ten paintings of the great whales that would win him world-wide recognition. These paintings, done for Audubon magazine, are considered the most moving and accurate pictures of whales ever done.
Info source: ro gallery
Bull Shark (1977)
Great White Shark (1991)
Carcharias taurus
Greenland Shark (Somniosus microcephalus)
Porbeagle Shark (Lamna nasus)
Chain Dogfish Small Shark
Great White Shark Portrait
Tiger Shark
I've never had the fantasy to go underwater to see sharks. But if the mood took me, I would dress like this:
An old dive suit: Coolest submarines showcase
