Bonnie Richardson knew she couldn’t paint with watercolors underwater when she was snorkeling or scuba diving, but she dearly wanted to. Oils were not her thing. So she developed a solution….

Lead Image: “Tang Fish School,” by Bonnie Richardson, watercolor, 26 x 17 in.

Richardson had painted en plein air for more than 30 years, but “once I discovered the underwater realm 13 years ago on my first snorkeling adventure in the Caribbean, I was hooked, and I began trying to figure out a way to bring the imagery topside,” she says. “I’ve never been interested in oils. Watercolor makes my heart sing, and it is the only medium I want to use. I loved this amazing world I had discovered, but I wondered how I could bring this topside. I thought and thought about it, then I formed a theory. Watercolor is the perfect medium to express the viscosity and fluidity I experience when I am underwater.” But how could she pull that off?

“Parrot Fish,” by Bonnie Richardson, watercolor, 26 x 17 in.
“Parrot Fish,” by Bonnie Richardson, watercolor, 26 x 17 in.

She discovered TerraSkin paper, an art product made of stone. “I love rocks,” says Richardson. “So it was like we were meant to be together. And that’s what I use all the time. It’s ground-up gypsum and resin. It stands up to salt water and fresh water. I buy it in sheets, but I have to be careful — bending it will put visible creases in it, so I transport it in a big portfolio. It’s not porous, so the pigment stays on the surface and gives true vibrancy to the color.”

Once she heard about the TerraSkin surface, used by another artist in an Ontario, Canada, exhibition, Richardson knew she had found her substrate. But how was she going to work underwater?

She realized that she was going to have to make sketches with wax-based Prismacolor pencils underwater, then take the pieces further from memory on land, using watercolors. She starts by taping down a section of TerraSkin with masking tape on a lightweight plastic cutting board that has a hole for a handle.

“Life in the Bay,” by Bonnie Richardson, watercolor, 17 x 26 in.
“Life in the Bay,” by Bonnie Richardson, watercolor, 17 x 26 in.

The Prismacolor pencils she takes underwater are bound together with an elastic band. The pencils resist smudging, but even so, “It looks more like a kindergarten drawing when I come up,” says the Canadian artist. “It is the basics of my composition and my perspective. I bring the images to shore, and once they are dry, I paint from memory to finalize my sketches. Once home, I draw from the whole underwater experience to create my impressions of life under the waves. Because I’ve been down there observing and sketching, it’s in my body memory.”

Underwater study by Bonnie Richardson using colored pencil on Terraskin paper
Underwater study by Bonnie Richardson using colored pencil on Terraskin paper

From her last diving adventure, it took nearly a year to work up the studies into finished watercolors ready for exhibition. “I needed to learn how to trust my memory,” says Richardson. “That was the big part, bringing it back and painting what I saw. I had to learn to be looser and freer and show what I saw underwater.”

“Tang Fish Feeding,” by Bonnie Richardson, watercolor, 17 x 26 in.
“Tang Fish Feeding,” by Bonnie Richardson, watercolor, 17 x 26 in.

Are fellow divers her collectors? Strangely, not so much. Richardson found that scuba divers like to take photos underwater and hang those in their homes — part art, part memento. But photography was not going to suit Richardson. “I have been very disappointed with my trying to take pictures underwater,” she says. “I know some scuba divers who have very good cameras. But fish are not solids in water, they are viscous elements in the fluidity of water. And the light that plays underwater changes so quickly, like in a nanosecond. I wouldn’t be satisfied with a photo. A photo is one moment, but I am studying several moments. You can see around and through and really study. Because I am in there studying the moment, I am the foreign element discovering the environment. I am really involved in the scene.”

“Under the Waves,” by Bonnie Richardson, watercolor, 17 x 26 in.
“Under the Waves,” by Bonnie Richardson, watercolor, 17 x 26 in.

Richardson and her husband live in Ontario, which means a fairly short diving season, at least locally. “It limits me on how many paintings I can do,” she says. “We try to save up and go on a trip every couple of years. And there is one freshwater lake by us. We have warm wetsuits, so we could dive for four months in our lakes. But let’s just say that July and August are very busy.”

Her “en pleine eau” pieces were on display recently at the Arts Project, in London, Ontario.


LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here