8/15/2010

Portrait of an Old Wife


This little Old Wife requests that you check out a newly added link in the Dreamyfish Art sidebar to your right: EarthShare.

Click the EarthShare link for details on the Gulf Coast region's environmental concerns and for updates on (what is hopefully) progress in the Gulf.

7/15/2010

Gulf Coast sea turtles now released after clean-up!

Hurrah! It's good news for oil-covered sea turtle victims of the BP-Gulf Oil disaster. They've been cleaned and spruced up and are now released to seek their fortunes in the Atlantic Ocean!

Hope it works out for them. They may be better off than the human victims of this freakish fiasco though BP reports today that the newly installed cap is working - no oil is gushing into Gulf waters as of today's efforts.

Well, that news deserves a (very cautious) Hurrah as well.

Wonder if 'cautious hurrah' is an oxymoron of sorts?

7/12/2010

Ready for genetically modified salmon?

Ready or not, America, here it comes: the US FDA is about to okay genetically modified salmon for our suppers.

Well, since salmon is my very very favorite fish for dinner and since Frankentein food is one of my worst nightmares, I am decidely not dreaming of GM salmon on my din din menu. And their increased size is hardly the issue.

In fact, this sounds like a lousy gene-altering idea to me.

How does it sound to you, little Spotted boxfish?



(He doesn't look remotely interested, does he? But every salmon-eating bi-ped should be.)

6/25/2010

Red Sea oil spill said to be contained!


Good news! The June 18 Red Sea Oil Spill is now successfully contained and under control, reports the excellent X-RAY MAG.

And here you see a portrait of a little Western footballer from Western Australia who's very pleased to hear the good news concerning his Red Sea cousins.

Wonder if there are any lessons from the Red Sea for cleaning up the BP-Gulf Oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico? For there seems to be no mop big enough to contain the worst environmental disaster is US history (so far.)

Well, The Daily Green provides freshly updated reports on how the Gulf Coast and ocean clean-up efforts are going and how the folks in the devastated region are managing (to the extent that they are.)

But one person didn't manage at all, for I'm very sorry to note that the BP Oil disaster and its dire effects have caused one ship captain to commit suicide. He'd been helping with BP's clean up efforts but it was all too much for him.

How very very sad and this blogger sends out heartfelt condolences to his family.

6/17/2010

Sea creatures flee BP Oil disaster, hug coastline to no avail

As you see from this blog of botanical fish illustrations, I adore fish of all stripes and hues. So just when I think dealing with the Carnage on the Gulf Coast due to the marine and shoreline assault from the BP Oil disaster of April 20, 2010 is getting a little easier, I run across this heart-tugger:

Sea Creatures Flee Oil Spill, Gather Near Shore

By JAY REEVES, JOHN FLESHER and TAMARA LUSH

Dolphins and sharks are showing up in surprisingly shallow just off the Florida coast. Mullets, crabs, rays and small fish congregate by the thousands off an Alabama pier. Birds covered in oil are crawling deep into marshes, never to be seen again. #

They're gathering near shore as if we can help them while the US Congress pretends to fuss out BP's CEO Tony Hayward who says he's 'distraught.'

I have to stop blogging now. There's much praying to do.

5/04/2010

Breaksea cod portrait now a sticker for Save Our Oceans!

Today's good news is that Breaksea cod is now appearing on cool stickers to remind us all to Save Our Oceans!

The bad news is that there's a lot of saving that needs to be done - even before the ongoing Gulf oil spill fiasco occurred. If someone wanted to break some hearts by way of sabotage or by negligence, they succeeded too well, didn't they?

Turns out that Halliburton was involved in the recent setting up of the oil platform that "exploded" so we'll see if the corporation's role is honestly and fully investigated, and if it amounts to anything.

Well, click above to view Breaksea cod's 'sticker debut' then visit Jude's Zazzle Art Shop to discover more fishy items fit for browsing, plus, a whole bunch of other designs besides...

3/27/2010

Botanical drawing of a Knightfish


Here's a little Knightfish swimming in from Western Australia and wondering if we'll ever get our act together enough to...

Save Our Oceans!

So now this lovely underwater photo of a Knightfish (aka, Pineapple Fish for obvious reasons) has turned up so you may wish to snag yourself a view while you still can.

3/07/2010

Portrait of a Cardinalfish w/ photos of his cousins


When Cardinalfish comes out to play
the smaller fishies speed away!


Actually I don't know if all the smaller fishies speed away. Perhaps some of them mosey away but no one could blame them for this yellow Cardinalfish seems poised for quick action...even if only in his private dreams here in the Dreamyfish Art Gallery!

Now I am about to do something I don't think I've ever done on this Save Our Oceans blog: pass along a link to a site that sells fish: their page displays photos of reputedly available Cardinalfish of which there are many in glorious colors and stripes. J'adore the blue one!

Personally I'd want to research a fish-procuring company's policies and methods concerning how they procure their offerings to the public of tropical and other fish. Sounds quite lucrative, doesn't it? Especially if certain other wildlife specimen are included in their product line.

However, one reason the link is being included is the paragraph at the bottom of its webpage with info (which has nothing to do with stalking, Australian dentists stealing Clownfish, or with denuding coral reefs of their denizens) that tells how various lighting in aquariums affect the colors of the fish you might order online - and the fact that AquaCon cannot gurantee your fish will look or be the same color or shade of color as you saw online. So there. Seems fair to me.

But tell me: why do some companies use the word con in their names if they want the public to trust them? Oh well. Enjoy the fish photos, they're lovely. But our yellow fellow's mugshot is not among the finny panoply!

Or is he.....?

2/21/2010

Planet Shark at the Georgia Aquarium! video + ticket coupon



On Saturday, Feb 20, 2010, my family and I attended Planet Shark Blogger Day at Atlanta's Georgia Aquarium with a complimentary ticket I received just for being a blogger!

Cameras snapped (though not in the Planet Shark exhibit - photos are not allowed - never annoy sharks!) and charming formally-dressed African Penguins greeted us as we entered the main area, with their good looks fully on display (myself was quite dishevelled, but never mind.)

Attending with a four-year-old was a real treat as she stooped down to go behind some of the fish tanks with the other kids to snag herself a different perspective. Viewing fishes and sharks swimming in tanks over our heads was quite marvelous, although if I had to make a suggestion for the Aquarium it would be for cleaner glass on display cases so that photos would turn out clearer.

An Emerald Tree boa, Corallus caninus, curled around a tropical tree limb in one exhibit that held so much greenery it made me want to climb in (if only the boa would vamoose!) for jungle scenery is my idea of earth's luscious beauty worth curling up in.

Another exhibit sported a very long alligator that seemed to swim by to pose for his daily camera ops - he's obviously an old hand at meeting the public. Spanish Moss hanging from the trees made a lovely accompaniment for the alligator's prehistoric countenance along with his tank mate, a massive-sized snapping turtle lurking in a nearby cove...no young whippersnapper there.

The Aquarium's Electric Fish exhibit was very popular, and its eels, Electrophorus electricus, and Catfish, Malapterurus electricus, stole the show - yet the Coldwater Quest display was one of my favorites because of its Kelp Forest tank (Kelp grows about a foot a day - kind of like a four-year-old!) and I adored the lovely Sea Anemones and Urchins. But the Crustaceans? Not so much, although they are a curiosity. (How people manage to consume them and like it is way beyond me...I prefer my fish dinners to have fins, thanks very much.)

And as you may expect, the played-out otters all asleep and piled upon one another, were favorites, too, and our cat-loving young lady fell in love with the furry fellows. Yet since I tend to draw botanical portraits of tropical fish from Southern Australia, you may imagine that the Aquarium's Rockfishes and the Tropical Diver exhibit - The Coral Kingdom - hit big home runs with this artist.

And what would any Aquarium be without orange and white Clown fish, model for Pixar's character in the popular Finding Nemo film? (One of my personal favorites, and yes, I've owned a copy since its release...just keep swimming...)

Plus, 'common' or not, who doesn't love an amazing color-changing
Common cuttlefish
, Sepia officinalis, to go along with your Atlantic - or Pacific - sea nettles? But always stay on their good side if you can figure out which side that is!

Well, thanks for browsing the Georgia Aquarium with me, and do make plans for a visit if you're ever in the Atlanta, GA area, okay?

Now here's a handy $2-off coupon which you may wish to print out for Planet Shark!



~~Offer expires March 14, 2010 -- 4 ticket maximum~~


~:~

Here's a drawing of a clump of Giant Red Kelp that I rendered some time ago for you in case you missed it. jc

2/16/2010

Sea sweep sweeps in!


A specimen of Southern Australia's Sea sweep, Scorpis aequipinnis, has swept in as if to say, Hello from the depths of the oceans!

2/05/2010

Truncate coralfish weighs in


This little Truncate coralfish has floated by to say, Hello! He hasn't been here in a while, 'tis true, for he tends to hang out near the coastline of Australia searching for breakfast, lunch, and dinner within coral colonies and other marine nooks and crannies.

Here are a couple of lovely photos of his nibs, yet his personal Wiki bio is mighty thin, so if you'd care to add to his legend with Truncate coralfish facts and figures, this little member of the butterflyfish family would be most pleased with you and in your debt forever.

1/23/2010

Salmon Aquaculture now improved!

Perhaps you heard Living On Earth today and the interview concerning Monterey Bay Aquarium's Sea Food Watch giving its first-ever seal of approval to AquaSeed Corporation of Rochester, Washington, for coming up with a better, safer way to feed farmed salmon.

Salmon is my very favorite fish-for-dinner yet I know that for years now consumers have been warned off farmed salmon because it contains high levels of contaminants. Yet often here in Georgia, farmed salmon is all that's available for purchase.

Well, I hope these innovations in fish farming 'catch' on with salmon farmers across the land!

Now I have no drawings of salmon but here's a small Bengal sergeant who wishes to salute the AquaSeed Corporation - good job!



All Art images copyrighted by the artist; permission for use required:

judecowell at gmail dot com

And please drop by Jude Cowell Art Shop for your tropical fish Art Poster and Greeting Card needs. Why, even fish art Mousepads are still available, relics of a bygone pc age though they may be!

1/13/2010

New fish portrait for you: Black striped butterfish!


Say, have you seen my Black striped butterfish? I know I left him around here somewhere!

This noble little Black striped butterfish goes by the alias, Pentapodus vitta (Quoy and Gaimard) and was last seen around Cockburn Sound, Australia which is bordered on one side by Carnac Island where the Slender weed whiting plays.

12/12/2009

'Scorpio Girl's new party frock' now a cool Beach Tote!

Know what? It pleases me to announce that one of my drawings Scorpio Girl's new party frock makes a smashing design for a Beach Tote...check out her sepia portrait trimmed coolly in brown, if you wish!

Perhaps if we move to Save Our Oceans before any more dilly-dawdling, we may keep a beach or two...bikinis optional.

Then snagging yourself a whimsical Beach Tote would make a lot more sense for carrying all your stuff (any time of year actually.)

Don't go! but if you must, please drop by a new Art Gallery at Sepia Art Theater where make-believe is behind the curtain and thespians may take their gracious bows & accept fragrant bouquets from ardent fans with much Leonine pride...it's Art, Drama, & Chocolates at Sepia Art Theater, and even Julia Child stops by for a small visit.

Here's icon and avatar of the Sepia Art Theater, Cosmea Collyns...that's Cos may' uh...click above and check out her portrait done in sepia as part of an Art Slideshow...