One of my tasks this winter was to touch up some places in the fall and spring wetlands exhibits at work. Whilw we had the fall one dismantled, my boss gave me permission to add a few things; I painted some fish!
The water in Lake Champlain is, based on all the underwater videos I watched, quite green. I believe that’s mostly algae and some silt, but it certainly led green tones to otherwise somewhat silvery fish. Lighting and visibility is also quite remarkable… the water can be quite bright, but at the same time has very little visibility more than a few feet or a meter or three away. I wanted to paint the fish as they looked in the water and yet at the same time, the water in the exhibit is painted blue, because it can look blue on a bright day or even silver brown.
I thought about repainting the entire floor of the exhibit to reflect that sandy/rocky lake bottom and algae tinted water. Yet… the water is quite clear looking down, by the islands or over deep areas, where these ducks and scoters swim. Color bears more thinking about, surely. And research. Oh, and visits to other natural gistory museums!!
More photos:l of the fish:
Some of my references:
https://youtu.be/HMtQk4bF26M?si=YPKAhp9meqROyRFY