Fish, David Arnold

Photographs over Watercolor Paintings, FISH series

The collection Photographs over Watercolor Paintings extends the experimental traditions of hand-applied color to photographic prints. Each image begins with an under-painting of watercolor on untreated hot press watercolor paper. After drying, the painting is fed through an archival digital printer and the photograph is printed upon it, creating a composite of painting and photograph. The overprinting of the Ultrachrome ink jet print suppresses photographic details and at the same time generates chance connections, mixing printing pigments with watercolor pigments.

Fish have been kept in containers and ponds as a food source since the early cultures. The Egyptians, the Romans and the Chinese kept fish and aquatic plants for the pleasure of watching. Close to the appearance of the first photograph in the 1830’s, aquarium keeping became a popular hobby in Europe. The London Zoo opened the public aquarium, the aquatic counterpart of the zoo, in 1853. Aquariums open us to a before unseen world of light and movement.