Acrylic, Photo Collage and Resin on Wood Panel | 18×24 inches | 7/8" Deep | 2023 | Nudibranch Series
Same creatures. Different universe.
Where Nudi Pastel bathed its cast of characters in the colours of childhood summers and candy wrappers and the inside of a box of crayons, Nudi Banana Spots drops them into the deep end — a black background that makes every colour hit harder, every creature glow brighter, every gesture read with the high-contrast drama of a neon sign in a dark alley at midnight.
The background is not empty. It is electric.
Slashes of hot pink cut across the composition like graffiti tags, bold and committed and entirely without apology. A vertical column of banana yellow blazes up the centre — spotted with black dots in a pattern that gives the painting its name and its particular energy, like a giant graphic print, like a Pop Art textile, like something Yayoi Kusama might have painted if she had discovered nudibranchs before polka dots. Strokes of teal and green cut through the upper portion with the loose, gestural confidence of a painter who has stopped second-guessing and started saying exactly what they mean.
Against all of that — the creatures.
And what creatures. The same cast of extraordinary beings that populate the entire Nudibranch series, but here seen as they are in their natural habitat — against darkness, against the deep ocean black, their colours doing exactly what bioluminescence does in the wild. The pink flabellina top right blazes like a tiny firework. The orange and yellow tubercled nudibranchs bottom row glow like embers. The white spotted black nudibranch top left — those perfect circular white dots arranged with machine precision — floats like a piece of minimalist art that wandered into the wrong painting and stayed because it liked the company. The multicoloured chromodoris centre left wears its extraordinary colour combination with the complete confidence of a creature that has never once considered toning it down.
And the tiny ones. The ones that reward the looking. Scattered across the composition in the spaces between the bold graphic gestures — small, perfect, each one a separate discovery — the nudibranchs that you almost miss and then cannot stop finding. Each one a reminder that in nature as in art, the most extraordinary things are often the ones hiding in plain sight.
If Nudi Pastel is the inner child given favourite colours and permission to play, Nudi Banana Spots is that same inner child discovering that darkness makes the colours brighter, that contrast is its own kind of joy, that sometimes the most exuberant thing you can do is put neon yellow and hot pink against pure black and let the creatures find their own light.
They always do. Nudibranchs always do.
Created in richly layered acrylic with bold gestural background painting, individual photographic collage elements precisely placed across the composition, and a final layer of high-gloss resin that gives every creature and every slash of colour the luminous depth of something glimpsed through the glass wall of a very stylish aquarium.
✦ Original, one-of-a-kind work ✦ Acrylic, photo collage and resin on wood panel ✦ 18 × 24 inches | 7/8" deep ✦ Unframed — ready to hang ✦ 2023 ✦ Part of the Nudibranch series ✦ Free worldwide shipping ✦ $3,200
Same creatures. Deeper water. Brighter light.
Acrylic, Photo Collage and Resin on Wood Panel | 18×24 inches | 7/8" Deep | 2023 | Nudibranch Series
Same creatures. Different universe.
Where Nudi Pastel bathed its cast of characters in the colours of childhood summers and candy wrappers and the inside of a box of crayons, Nudi Banana Spots drops them into the deep end — a black background that makes every colour hit harder, every creature glow brighter, every gesture read with the high-contrast drama of a neon sign in a dark alley at midnight.
The background is not empty. It is electric.
Slashes of hot pink cut across the composition like graffiti tags, bold and committed and entirely without apology. A vertical column of banana yellow blazes up the centre — spotted with black dots in a pattern that gives the painting its name and its particular energy, like a giant graphic print, like a Pop Art textile, like something Yayoi Kusama might have painted if she had discovered nudibranchs before polka dots. Strokes of teal and green cut through the upper portion with the loose, gestural confidence of a painter who has stopped second-guessing and started saying exactly what they mean.
Against all of that — the creatures.
And what creatures. The same cast of extraordinary beings that populate the entire Nudibranch series, but here seen as they are in their natural habitat — against darkness, against the deep ocean black, their colours doing exactly what bioluminescence does in the wild. The pink flabellina top right blazes like a tiny firework. The orange and yellow tubercled nudibranchs bottom row glow like embers. The white spotted black nudibranch top left — those perfect circular white dots arranged with machine precision — floats like a piece of minimalist art that wandered into the wrong painting and stayed because it liked the company. The multicoloured chromodoris centre left wears its extraordinary colour combination with the complete confidence of a creature that has never once considered toning it down.
And the tiny ones. The ones that reward the looking. Scattered across the composition in the spaces between the bold graphic gestures — small, perfect, each one a separate discovery — the nudibranchs that you almost miss and then cannot stop finding. Each one a reminder that in nature as in art, the most extraordinary things are often the ones hiding in plain sight.
If Nudi Pastel is the inner child given favourite colours and permission to play, Nudi Banana Spots is that same inner child discovering that darkness makes the colours brighter, that contrast is its own kind of joy, that sometimes the most exuberant thing you can do is put neon yellow and hot pink against pure black and let the creatures find their own light.
They always do. Nudibranchs always do.
Created in richly layered acrylic with bold gestural background painting, individual photographic collage elements precisely placed across the composition, and a final layer of high-gloss resin that gives every creature and every slash of colour the luminous depth of something glimpsed through the glass wall of a very stylish aquarium.
✦ Original, one-of-a-kind work ✦ Acrylic, photo collage and resin on wood panel ✦ 18 × 24 inches | 7/8" deep ✦ Unframed — ready to hang ✦ 2023 ✦ Part of the Nudibranch series ✦ Free worldwide shipping ✦ $3,200
Same creatures. Deeper water. Brighter light.
