Guy Chaumette: Photo-Brush Art
Guy’s photo-brush art depicts a lifetime love of being underwater. The shimmering, hovering, explosion of marine colours. The teeming life of the coral reefs. The light. The feelings. The flicker and glow of a magical world. The underwater kingdom inspires and shines through all that he creates.
Underwater photography is technically challenging and when technique is mastered, one can make some interesting photographs, but coming back from filmmaking I needed more. Having done image manipulation forever, the latest technology allowed me to enter a new field and introduce painting into my workflow. This allowed me to push the boundaries of reality, entering a world of ultimate creativity. As my new skills developed, I blended it with my old skills of photo processing. What started as fun drawings became more and more sophisticated, creative and emotionally-charged art.
“One day, inspired by watching the photographic journey of a friend of mine, Chris Crumley, I decided to bring mermaids into it. Another scientist friend we worked with on a film series called ‘Watercolours’, Professor Justin Marshall deeply inspired me for some of my paintings and was the spark that made me do the fisheye collection. The rest reflects my feelings, emotions, experiences and a lifetime of being underwater, living, breathing, loving the marine creatures, the ocean, coral reefs and their inhabitants.”
To see more of Guy’s art, please visit his Liquid Motion site.
Of all the creatures living in the ocean, dolphins are undoubtedly the ones that fill me with the greatest inner joy. Their elegant beauty, their family bond, their playfulness…
The bue ring octopus (Hapalochlaena lunulata) is very small, yet mesmerising. Beautiful, yet deadly. This little guy goes round the flats, unmolested, flashing his blue rings to advertise a lethal toxicity.
The smoothness of a free-diver passing through an air ring without disturbing it is close to magical. The use of a mermaid reinforces the magic, lessening the gap between the aquatic world and our own.
Fluid and Motion. Agile, funny, smart, fast, playful… yet deadly to the fish they feed upon! The seal (Callorhinus ursinus) is another marvelous creature in an icy environment.
I ‘danced’ with Mantas (Manta birostris) for the very first time in the early 1990’s. Recently, I decided to add a mermaid as a dancing partner for the manta.
Beneath the ice lies a world which is often ignored and unknown. The warm-bloodied mermaid is the contrast to the ice cold environment
The gentle giants of the sea (Blue Wales, Balaenoptera musculus) are extremely intelligent; their eye being the window to their soul… The efforts continue, often in vain, to convince mankind to realize, to recognize the emotional intelligenc
The male Jawfish (Opistognathus randalli) takes parenting very seriously - at least until his eggs hatch.