The Lost Fishes Art Challenge

 

9x12

watercolor on Arches paper

Over the summer when I started to do the #SundayFishSketch over on Twitter, I was contacted by the fine peeps at the Shoal Conservation about submitting a piece for their Lost Fishes Art Challenge. Sounds great! There are ten fishes on the list and all are still considered to be there, but have not been seen in decades. Apparently, the signs are there that they still do exist, but like I said, they have not been seen in some time. Most, if not all of these fishes inhabit only a certain spot across the globe.

I have chosen the Syr Darya Shovelnose Sturgeon (from an earlier sketch), which is (hopefully) still alive in the Syr Darya River which flows through Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The sturgeon was last seen in the 1960's. You can see all of the ten fishes here. 

Good luck to all who entered and I look forward to seeing everyone's fishes!

I used Dr, Martin's watercolors on this one and just loved the feel of it as I was painting. The watercolor set used to belong to Jon Buechel, who was the longtime illustrator at the Detroit Free Press. Sadly, he passed away in 2010. I was able to purchase some of his art supplies at an estate sale and was very happy to pick up these watercolors. Maybe, just maybe, he helped a little on this piece. 

Syr Darya Shovelnose Sturgeon Sketch

8x5

ink in sketchbook

For this week's #SundayFishSketch the theme is lost fishes, meaning fish that haven't been seen in a long time, but are not considered extinct. At least not yet. I have chosen to represent the Syr Darya Shovelnose Sturgeon endemic to the Syr Darya River in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, which were last seen in the 1960's. Part of the Area Sea has dried up over the decades and that has had an impact on this fish population. Add that to pollution and the population of this sturgeon has dropped significantly. 

I will be contributing some artwork to the Shoal Conservation's Lost Fish Art Challenge and I plan on doing this fish, as well as a few others, probably in watercolor.