Mixed Media on canvas, stretched and ready to hang.

Signed on the back.

This artwork comes with an external frame

I was struck by the confronting images early in 2023 depicting thousands upon thousands of dead native fish floating upon the Darling River, NSW. Species of Perch, Bream, Murray Cod, and carp choked the river with rotting and putrid fish carcasses threatening the health of nearby communities along its course. Flooding in the Darling River Flood plains had dragged high amounts of organic matter into the river system and as the flood waters receded and high temperatures followed, bacterial groth bloomed - stripping the water of oxygen required by the fish population to survive.
A environmental disaster on a scale rarely seen before.
The visual impact of this event across the media was an abrupt reminder to me not only of the human impact - but specifically the millions of fish and other living species threatened by climate change in our river systems.
I created this artwork using several glazes of oil colour to create a deep translucent effect, wiping and reapplying with a cloth to sketch in the shadowy fish shapes. Oil sticks were used to enhance the shape and transparent, ghostly imagery of the fish rising and swirling to their untimely death just beneath the warm sunlit surface.

See my other similar artwork listed - 'Floating' (40cm x 40cm)