About Me
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I have always had a real love for nature and was lucky enough to be taken to some beautiful places by my parents when I was a child. I have fond memories of putting on waterproofs and boots and stomping around in the Lake District and climbing Cadair Idris and Snowdon, and I can still taste the fresh cold bubbling water I would catch in my hands and drink as we trudged towards the distant summit. Wherever I went, I would return with pockets full of stones and feathers, shells, bits of rusty objects, leaves and sea glass, and when I could, fossils. I dug out many from the chalk of Kent when staying with family, and we had, and still have cowrie hunting competitions on Joss Bay in Broadstairs. Broadstairs was also home to making shrimping nets and trailing through the waves shrimping and also hunting for winkles in the rock pools. I don't remember eating the shrimps, but I can still smell the winkles as they boiled and the taste of the vinegar as we picked out the creature with a pin, after removing the hard coating at the entrance to it's spiral home.
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I remember going fishing with my dad, sitting by the canals about half an hour's drive from Luton where I originally grew up.
It was calm, peaceful, and relaxed and real quality family time. I did put maggots on the hook but I didn't like doing it, or the smell of maggots. I did like rolling up tight balls of bread. I also remember being taught how to make flies by my Godfather who would go off on his own a couple of times a year to go fly fishing in various lakes and rivers. He wrote about his experiences and I am intending to have his works published, with my fish pictures to illustrate it, and a watercolour by my mum, of where he used to stay.
I have continued in the spirit of my parents, of always bringing home little treasures, and foraging, and seeing the beauty in the natural world around us. Later I would also record what I saw when I took up photography, first using an SLR and made my own darkroom and exhibited some of my Black and White photographs. Then I moved into digital compact camera's, also use a DSLR, mostly for Macro photography and I have played with 3D images too. Now I use a GoPro for moving images when I snorkel, but my favourite is my Sealife which I use for still underwater photography, both for snorkelling and Scuba Diving.
I always yearned to live by the sea, and I suppose my first step towards that was when I lived on a boat on the River Lee for 8 years in Hackney, when I taught Art in Tottenham.
I learnt to Scuba dive in 2018 and past my Advanced Open Water in 2019. Everything now seems to have come together. My love of being in the elements, water, nature, snorkelling, taking photo's and seeing the amazing creatures underwater. So printing, drawing and painting fish is the culmination of everything I love doing.
My background is a BA Honours Degree in Fine Art painting at Kingston Polytechnic. Then I took five years out to work on my own art and I worked part time as an Environmental Education Assistant in Richmond Upon Thames. I taught about global warming, dangers of litter and plastic to the environment and animals and sealife, not a lot seems to have happend since then which was 30 years ago! That is worrying. My husband rescued a fish from a plastic bag this year when we snorkeling in the middle of nowhere in the Seychelles, it is so sad what we are doing to our planet! I then achieved a Fine Art Masters of Arts Degree in Sculpture, at the Royal College of Art, where as well as my sculptures and an installation, I also exhibited my photography.
I didn’t plan to stop eating fish, but a year after giving up eating meat (when I was 19), I watched a documentary called “In the Shadow of Fujisan”. I had never seen the size of tuna, up until that point, I didn’t realise they could be as big as dolphins. The fishermen were using dragnets, catching huge tuna, along with dolphins, they were being battered against the rocks, the sea was red with blood, and I sobbed. I had a tuna lasagne in the fridge for my evening meal that night, there was no way I could eat it after watching that and being so upset. I stopped immediately eating fish.
As someone who is a vegetarian and feels deeply about the importance of looking after our planet, it may seem strange that I buy dead fish to work from. In reality I hope that my work may make some people see a beauty in these marvellous creatures that they had not considered, and to feel the importance of making sure that if these creatures are caught for human consumption, that it is done in the most environmentally sound way that causes the least harm + suffering to the creatures and that it is sustainable, both for the fish and the fishermen and chefs, whose livelihoods are also on the balance.
I love watching MasterChef, and I am in awe of the talent, creativity, passion, and hard work that goes into the food that is produced, it is an art in itself. I love having my work exhibited in galleries, but I really love my work exhibited in cafes and pub/restaurants where people that are in close contact with fish on a daily basis display the work, and I find this a real compliment and it seems to round off the community feeling that surrounds fishing, cooking, eating and caring for our planet and the creatures within it.
My full time job for the past 22 years has been, and still is, teaching Art at secondary school level. However, I see myself as an Artist that teaches Art, rather than as a Teacher, and at the end of the day I can’t wait to get home from school to do my own stuff! I moved from London to Felixstowe in 2010. My passion is diving and this has driven my art work and fascination with the Japanese art form of Gyotaku.
Gyotaku is a traditional way of printing fish in Japan. Gyo translated means "fish" and taku means "stone impression". This form of printing dates back to the mid-1800s in Japan. (see "Gyotaku")
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Sir David Attenborough
I wrote to Sir David Attenborough to invite him to my exhibition in 2019. Knowing that he has such a strong passion for the natural world and the environment I thought it only appropriate that I send him an invitation to visit my show.
Unfortunately Sir David was unable to make it, but I appreciated the fact that he took the time to write back to me. A true gentleman!
Paul Ainsworth Chef
Paul Ainsworth was awarded a Michelin Star in 2013 and has 4 AA Rosettes. He is often on Master Chef and has cooked for the Great British Menue. I felt I wanted to share the kind words that he said about my work, as in his profession, works closely with many of the fish that I am drawing:
Rick Stein Chef
I also had a lovely response from Rick Stein:
Jason DeCaires Taylor: Museo Atlantico, Lanzarote
Jason DeCaires Taylor is a British sculptor and creator of the world's first underwater sculpture park. Although I have been using images of his work for a few years in lessons when teaching about sculpture, it wasn't until I went to Lanzarote for New Year 2020 and dived on New Year's eve at the Museo Atlantico that I started to understand the meaning and value of his work. Before we dived, our guide at Rubicon Dive Centre described the dive plan and the route we would be taking around the museum, which is at 14m depth. He explained that some of the images represented the increasing lack of interest in reading and education, so books were being used as oars, lack of communication in the people walking just looking at their mobile phones, how we are destroying our lives and our planet. Marching towards the doorway in the Rubicon (the wall) the point of no return. On the other side, humans are being engulfed by nature and turning into cacti, losing themselves, bodies stacked on top each other. The only humans left, being rich business men in suits playing on the swings in the playground. A harsh message.
I had tears in my eyes whilst he was telling us, as all this was what I am about, nature, environment, compassion, responsibility, change and art, and of course being under the water!
The dive was magnificent. All sorts of creatures and an Angel shark at the gate of the Rubicon, a poignant image, of now one of the rarest sharks in the world, to be seen at the gate in the Rubicon. The Canaries is one of the only places now where Angel Sharks exist.
When I was back in England, I looked up Jason Taylor and the more I saw, and the more I read, the more I admired the work and what it stood for. I decided to write to him to say a little about my work and background and to show some of the fish images that I have been working on. I was really chuffed when he responded, as he is obviously a really busy person, doing brilliant work that I have great respect for:
