The unmarked choice of colour for underwater scenes is, of course, blue.
Il Batiscafo ‘Trieste’ the bathyscaphe named after the port city where she was built. This illustration is by Curt Caesar, found in ‘Il Vittorioso’, c.19603人のちいさな人魚 20101978 THE FORBIDDEN FOREST William Pene du Bois frontispieceDugald Stewart Walker (American, 1883-1937) mermaid She would have nothing but the rosy flowers like the sun up aboveThe Gardens of the Merking’s Palace, the 1927 illustration by J R R Tolkien for his novella, Roverandom, not published until 1998Harry Rountree, The Story of the Ring – A Short Analysis of Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung, 1933 edition (1907) FrontispieceIan Beck – The Little MermaidOctopus and Pike (1937) by Ilna Ewers-Wunderwald (illustrator)Guy Edgar Fry (1903-1987) Illustrator, designer, educator1973 OCEANOGRAPHY A Golden Exploring Earth Book
Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage. When his mother was sold away, Hiram was robbed of all memory of her — but was gifted with a mysterious power. Years later, when Hiram almost drowns in a river, that same power saves his life. This brush with death births an urgency in Hiram and a daring scheme: to escape from the only home he’s ever known.
So begins an unexpected journey that takes Hiram from the corrupt grandeur of Virginia’s proud plantations to desperate guerrilla cells in the wilderness, from the coffin of the deep South to dangerously utopic movements in the North. Even as he’s enlisted in the underground war between slavers and the enslaved, Hiram’s resolve to rescue the family he left behind endures.
Hannes Bok, pseudonym for Wayne Francis Woodard (1914 – 1964)The Poisoned Anemones
Nino wakes up in the middle of the night: there is noise in the kitchen … and water everywhere! What’s going on ? Leaning out of the washing machine’s window, “zioup!”, He slips … and finds himself in the open sea! Where is he ? Could this be Venice? A wonderful metaphorical journey to evoke the adventure of becoming a big brother.
Ser Leone (American, 20th Century) The Underwater Kiss, paperback coverDean Ellis (1920 – 2009) 1975 book cover illustration for Red Tide by D.D.Chapman and Deloris Lehman Tarzan1937 Schweppes Table Waters advertisement with mermaidKINDERPARADIES (1960) Ota JanecekARGOSY Pulp magazine. September 26 1936 cover artThe Tale of The Pearls of the Mermaid from ‘The Black Princess and Other Fairy Tales from Brazil’ illustrated by Florence Mary Anderson. Published 1916The Mermaid Girl ~ Helen Jacobs (1888-1970)Anton Lomaev – The Little MermaidJohn Patience – The Little Mermaidfrom Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy’ by Amos Nattini, 1923
PINK
But really, an underwater scene can be any colour you want it to be.
Edward Julius Detmold, Illustration from Jewels of the Deep, etching and aquatint, 1925; The British Museum underwaterAtelier Levitt-Him, 1937 Polish William Heath Robinson (1872 – 1944) 1909 The Wrecks illustration for A Song Of The English by Rudyard KiplingMilo Winter (1888–1956) O Mouse, do you know the way out of this pool, Alice in Wonderland, 1916
GREEN
The Sea Fairies illustration from Frank L. BaumJosef Palecek illustration for The Little Mermaid (1981)ふしぎなオタマジャクシ 19831923 travel advertisement Signed- P FurietElizabeth Orton Jones – American (1910-2005)Helen Mary Jacobs (1888 – 1970), MermaidThe Magic Mackerel Illustration By Charles Folkard 1920 from British fairy and folk tales edited by W.J. Glover 1920PRZYGODA PEWNEGO PAWIA (1966) Jozef Wilkonuntitled collage with tempera on paperboard ~ c.1940 ~ Joseph Cornell (American, 1903-1972)Riddles, Riddles from A to Z by Carl Memling illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman (1962)From The Animal Kingdom, 1968. Illustrations by Charles Harper MÄRCHEN AUS DER SÜDSEE (1976) Karel TeissigDE ONTEVREDEN VIS (1962) Cornelius van Velsen fish octopusMÄRCHEN AUS DER SÜDSEE (1976) Karel Teissig
ILLUSTRATING THE DIVISION BETWEEN UNDER AND ABOVE WATER
Born On The Water by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renee Watson illustrated by Nikkolas SmithThe Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen. Illustrated by Jennie Harbour.(1893-1959). Charley Harper, illustration from The Golden Book of Biology, 1961 fish Zdeněk Burian (1905 – 1981) 1956 illustration for “Prehistoric Animals” by Josef Augusta, although it was originally painted in 1941 and has been used for countless publications. It is now considered highly unlikely that Brachiosaurus could have inhaled in deep water.Sidney Walter Stanley for The Willows and Other Queer Tales by Algernon Blackwood 1932 By Waterふしぎなオタマジャクシ 1983ARGOSY pulp magazine October 19 1940 by Maria Szymańska, 1971, Polish およぐ なかのひろたか SwimmingElsa Beskow (1874-1953)WATER BABIES 1990’s Children’s Little Golden BookA.P. Hopfmuller (published 1919-1923)Salt Water Poems and BalladsSadko in the Underwater Kingdom (1876) by Ilya Repin (Russian Empire, 1844–1930). State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg. Sadko in the Sea Tsar’s kingdom. Commissioned by the future Tsar Alexander III.Sadko, Tsar of the Seas
Contemporary artists who depict water beautifully
Calida Garcia Rawles e.g. ‘The Space in Which We Travel‘ (2019)
CONTEMPORARY FICTION SET IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND (2023)
On paper, things look fine. Sam Dennon recently inherited significant wealth from his uncle. As a respected architect, Sam spends his days thinking about the family needs and rich lives of his clients. But privately? Even his enduring love of amateur astronomy is on the wane. Sam has built a sustainable-architecture display home for himself but hasn’t yet moved into it, preferring to sleep in his cocoon of a campervan. Although they never announced it publicly, Sam’s wife and business partner ended their marriage years ago due to lack of intimacy, leaving Sam with the sense he is irreparably broken.
Now his beloved uncle has died. An intensifying fear manifests as health anxiety, with night terrors from a half-remembered early childhood event. To assuage the loneliness, Sam embarks on a Personal Happiness Project:
