Nanaimo artist finds beauty in Jellyfish

My first solo art show!

Nanaimo artist finds beauty in the sea creatures (jellyfish) found at Neck Point Park, Nanaimo, BC on the east side of Vancouver Island.
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Yay! I had my first solo art show several years ago. Well, I guess it has been over nine years now...

Here are some of the photos I took at Neck Point Park one afternoon when I spotted the jelly blob on the beach. They were the inspiration for 'I see gold' art show.

All photos below are copyrighted by Lena Rasmussen. If you are interested in purchasing a print of one of the jellyfishes, just contact me.

Slideshow of cyanea capillata jellyfish from Nanaimo, Vancouver Island, BC

​The red painting is named "I sea red". I painted this one for another art show at Nanaimo Art Gallery. The theme was 'red'. The rocks with barnacles painting was from a photo I took and mixed with some of my imagination. I really love painting rocks and barnacles! The painting on the right was how I remembered seeing gold through the jellyfish that was laying on some rocks near Neck Point Park, Nanaimo, BC, Vancouver Island.

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​In the first painting here, I am visualizing what it looks like looking through the jellyfish and seeing gold. Then I have two photos I took of the jellyfish. The 2nd painting is an abstract of orange & lime slices. Then there are some black and white photos of daisies and echinacea coneflowers from my garden.  Plus a smaller abstract painting of rocks and stones on a beach.

The larger blue painting  © I visualized looking under the water and seeing to the surface. Barnacles again on the rocks. I love living by the ocean!

​Here are some of my smaller poppy paintings. © They're whimsical and also from my imagination. I painted some still lifes of coffee beans, olives and cherries. I painted some starfish I photographed on Newcastle Island just across the water from Nanaimo. Here is one of my sunflowers paintings. In the meantime, I have re-painted the background with an aqua teal color.

Some photos I've taken of the jelly fish that inspired me to paint for my first one woman art show 'I see gold'. Below is a newspaper article on my art show.

Note: I have copied this article and I am sharing from: The Daily News (Nanaimo) December 18, 2008 - © (c) CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc.
http://www.canada.com/nanaimodailynews/story.html?id=edb811b4-34a2-4acf-aa81-895bdfe6efc3
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Nanaimo artist finds beauty in the sea creatures

By The Daily News (Nanaimo) December 18, 2008
Vancouver Islanders have spotted waves of jelly fish stretched along shorelines this fall, including Nanaimo artist, Lena Rasmussen, who found beauty in the sea creatures. She created an entire art series based on her findings during a stroll near Neck Point Park in late August.
 
Rasmussen officially launched the work earlier this month and her acrylic paintings remain on display at the Nanaimo Arts Council gallery for the rest of the month.
 
The concept for the 'I See Gold' series began when she walked the edge of the water and saw several people poking at several flat blobs of jelly about the size of a large dinner plate. People all over the Island and the Mainland have spotted similar findings this year.
 
Ocean tour companies reported seeing clusters of about 30 in the water, while residents from various shores came across groups of 20 in some instances, according to Canwest News Service.
 
The sightings in Nanaimo intrigued Rasmussen who took photographs, created her own colours from acrylic paint and immediately went to work. Painting relieves her of the chronic pain she experiences in her muscles and joints. The cancer survivor suffers from a list of illnesses that doctors can do little about, including severe endometriosis, arthritis and fibromyalgia.
 
Rasmussen wanted to capture the "gold" images she could see while staring at the reddish-brown jelly puddles.
"I swear it looked like I could see gold shimmering through its jellied body," she said.
"It was the way the light was shining on and through it. I had to paint its beauty."
 
The cyanea capillata jellyfish are at the top of a four-year population cycle, according to a marine biologist working in Nanaimo.
Their lifespan starts in the spring and matures in early September when they drift ashore and die.
They occupy waters from the mouth of the Fraser River to Comox and through the Juan de Fuca Strait as far as Sooke.
Long tentacles stretch and flow, collecting food while drifting in the water's current; on shore, they cannot survive.
 
Rasmussen wanted to depict the gold images she could see underneath the blobs, as if "you were looking right through them," she explained.
 
Her paintings will be displayed in the arts council gallery at the Nanaimo North Town Centre shopping mall until the end of the year.
© (c) CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc.