carping on

a birthday present

I’m not a fan of fishing myself, but my daughter’s other half goes off to France periodically to enjoy a week of camping and catch-and-release carp fishing with his chums. It’s his birthday this week and I rather like painting fish so I thought I’d contribute to their decor. They are currently redecorating and going for a sort of cosy-but-classy country look with lots of soft browns, forest greens, and lamps instead of fairy lights. Amber bought a large print of a stag on a hillside to go above the sofa so I figured actually a fish painting wouldn’t look out of place (plaice? haha).

I used an illustration from my Water Life of Britain field guide, and painted in gouache on grey Khadi paper, a fave combo of mine as the colours show through really well. I ended up giving him a muddy green background and some pondweed to swim through but I think it worked out well.

Here is a scan of the finished picture – looking much flatter than the actual image but I wanted to make sure I had a copy before posting it!