paintings and text by Colin Page

Now that things are slowing down in my schedule, I’ve finally found time to do some fun still life projects I’ve been kicking around for a while. I thought it would be fun to paint fish as part of a tablescape. The first challenge was finding some whole fish. It turns out it’s hard to find a fish that hasn’t already been processed and fileted. Jess’s Market in Rockland came through for me and had some John Dory for me. It’s a beautiful silvery fish that reflects all kinds of color. Before working with it on a larger painting, I decided to paint a smaller piece. This one is 20×24″ and was a blast to paint, even if the subject got a bit smelly. The fish went into the freezer, ready to pose another day.

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The fish came out of the freezer to pose for me again recently. This time I looked at some old master still lifes with fish, and noticed an interesting theme. There were quite a few with sliced lemons. The lemons add a nice splash of color, and also help cut through the smell of raw fish sitting under warm lights. Lemons help, but only a little. This painting is 48×30.”  I hope to work with these two little fishies again sometime, so back into the freezer they went.