Tarpon Flanks – Keys and Sunlight

Earlier in my stay in the Florida Keys I had the good fortune to catch a beautiful, giant tarpon. (Check out my “Quest to Catch a Tarpon” post)

Once I landed the fish, I took photos of it, but as is normally the case, they were worthless in capturing the true intense beauty that this Tarpon possessed. Like an Abalone shell.. the amazing look of the fish comes from the variety of brilliant pearlescent colors that are seen when it is tilted back and forth for the sun to reveal.

So for this Tarpon to really teach me anything, I needed to do a painting of it within a few days of the catch, while the vision of it was fresh in my mind.

The painting was of the tarpon’s flank, and turned out great.. It captured the look of the fish when it was in the shade of the boat.. focusing on all the shimmering shades of blue that each scale contained. The painting is titled “Abstract Tarpon Flank – Blue” (sold). (Painting shown as first image)

The morning I’d landed the Tarpon, I specifically asked my dad to turn the boat before we released him back to the depths, because I just had to see what the fish looked like in the sunlight. So dad turned the boat, and as the sunlight shone over the Tarpon, it took on an entirely different pallette of colors. I was shocked to see many different colors in each scale…

So I decided I needed to do a second painting of the tarpon.. this one showing what the fish looked like in the sunlight..

For the past few days I’ve spent time working on this new painting, titled “Abstract Tarpon Flank – Sunlight”.
(Painting shown as second image)
Check it out here