DIVING WITH FISH AND OTHER WILDLIFE - THE ARTIST UNDERWATER

Over the years I have spent hours underwater gathering reference as inspiration for my paintings.  During the summer I dive and snorkel a lot off the Pembrokeshire coast, favourite sites including  St. Bride’s, Skomer Island and Stackpole Quay.  The wealth of life here is amazing and those rare days when the weather and sea conditions allow for many metres of clear  water can be exceptional and serve to remind me why I am so obsessed with the underwater world.

It is not only the sea that draws me.  It was all the years I spent catching fish on local rivers and ponds in my native Northern England that sparked my interest in the fishes world and my first encounters were in fresh water,

snorkelling with minnows and sea trout in a little tributary of the river Towy.  The Towy and it’s tributaries form a major part of my work with sea trout and salmon but other freshwater sites I enjoy diving include Hampshire chalk-streams and gravel pits where I have had great close-up encounters with pike, tench and perch amongst others.

Here are a few of my favourite photographs from some of my many adventures.

bass on the reef

mullet shoal

bass and mullet shoal

sand eel shoal

SALTWATER PHOTOGRAPHS

blowing bubbles

bib

bull seal

playful seal

seal conversation

common dolphin

diving puffin

head-dipping puffin

head-dipping puffin

diving puffins

Skomer puffins

swimming puffin

kelp forest

FRESHWATER PHOTOGRAPHS

Cothi sea-trout

cock sea-trout

sea-trout, River Cothi

grayling brace

grayling rising

roach fry

roach shoal and white water-lily

gravel pit pike

pike and perch

All photographs displayed on this page are copyright of the artist and may not be used or copied without his permission.

perch

moon jellyfish