Elizabeth Awalt | Swimming with Groupers

Reception with the artist in the SHED @ 18 Arlington Street . Annisquam . Gloucester MA

Tuesday July 30th . 5:30-7pm

When I scuba dive in Little Cayman Island I’m never alone. I always dive with a group and often we are followed by very large red groupers, large curious fish nicknamed the “puppies of the sea”. Their friendliness belies the fact that in the 1990’s their species collapsed due to overfishing in the Cayman Islands. As a result of two decades of science-based conservation policies in Little Cayman the Nassau grouper population is now the largest in the world. 

When diving I may see a grouper with its mouth and gills open without moving. I’ve learned that this behavior suggests the fish is at a “feeding station” where tiny shrimps and fish are cleaning it. During this time the fish is a great model and I open my underwater sketchbook and draw it. The large painting in the SHED, titled “Feeding Station” is based on a drawing from my sketchbook and multiple photographs I’ve taken underwater. Several ink portraits of groupers hang in the SHED along with my collections of coral, micro plastics in bottles, and other sea finds. Small drawings on duralar represent microscopic creatures floating in the sea.                                                                                                                  — Elizabeth Awalt

For a slideshow of works in the exhibition, please scroll down. Then click on the arrow at right.