FOR SALE: 1910 “Three’s a crowd, Sir!” (Pacific Double-saddle Butterfly Fish, Chaetodon ulietensis)
FOR SALE Artist Code 1910. “Three’s a crowd, Sir!”. Completed 14 August 2019. Original acrylic on 100% stretched cotton box canvas, size 16″ x 16″. Sealed and varnished.
Painted especially for an exhibition: “The Cambridge Open Art Exhibition” on Friday 11th October to Sunday 13th October 2019.
The painting was selected for one of the Top Twenty Artists Awards and was included in a month-long Exhibition and display at the Storey’s Field Centre, Eddington, Cambridge from 24th October to 22nd November 2019.
I attended an illustrated talk by world renowned marine biologist and author, Dr Frances Dipper, at Haddenham Conservation Society in 2018 and was very taken with these little fish when the slide was projected on the wall. I immediately asked Dr Dipper if she would allow me to use the photograph as a resource for a painting, to which she very kindly agreed.
About the little fish from wikipedia:
C. ulietensis is often found singly or in pairs on coral-rich reef systems, foraging on sessile invertebrates and algae. It is not a territorial species that freely grazes throughout a wide range within reefs, lagoons and harbours, and every now and then large groups congregate at rich feeding spots. It is rarely ever observed in a deep reef environment or the open sea; juveniles are typically reared in shallow lagoons, estuaries or harbors.
An opportunistic omnivore, diet consists mainly of microscopic algae, other plankton, and small sessile invertebrates. As a measure of defense, they typically wedge themselves in tight crevasses to escape predators.
This is the original photograph kindly provided by Dr Dipper:
