Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the most diverse of all the oceans. It can be the palest turquoise, ultramarine blue, or golden orange. It is the warmest ocean on Earth. It is the third largest of Earth’s oceans and covers one fifth of the planet. Due to the melting polar caps, the Indian Ocean is growing 20 centimeters wider each year.
The deepest part of the Indian Ocean is the Sunda Trench which is near the southern part of the Java Peninsula and near where the Borobudur Ship sailed.
The Indian Ocean is the most fun to paint! I spent time in Indonesia, Seychelles, Madagascar, and South Africa while I was Expedition Artist for The Borobudur Ship Expedition and I quickly fell in love with the many colors and shapes found in this ocean. I have been lucky to make many trips back to paint the ocean including while I was the Expedition Artist for the Phoenician Ship Expedition.
Mozambique VI [left] bestrides the line between abstraction and representation. It is from Beira, Mozambique. It helps tell a narrative of our Earth, a document of the formal and sensual qualities of water in all its permutations. Mozambique VI, Oil on linen, 24x36 inches, 2010
Borobudur Ship IV
The Borobudur Ship is a recreation of an 8th century BCE Indonesian trading vessel based on stone relief carvings found on the Borobudur Temple in central Java. Philip Beale pioneered The Borobudur Ship Expedition that sailed from Indonesia, across the Indian Ocean, around the Cape of Good Hope and up the Atlantic Ocean to Ghana, a voyage that could have been taken by people in the 8th century. Borobudur Ship IV is a painting of her under sail in the Indian Ocean from that expedition.
Borobudur Ship IV
Oil on linen
36x24 inches
2004
South Africa
Oil on linen
48x42 inches
2011
South Africa
By depicting the view straight down in a marina in Richards Bay, South Africa, I am capturing the vertigo felt from looking at deep water, a force downward, a psychological race to the bottom. I am making a statement about the unifying preciousness of water by painting all of the major bodies of water on Earth.
Mozambique IX
Mozambique IX is a view from Phoenicia reflected in an oily marina in Beira, Mozambique. I paint the scum of oil on water. Looking for formal elegance linking abstraction and realism is my way of coping with the destruction. The colors I used for this painting were inspired by the colors of clothing I saw people wear in Beira.
Mozambique IX
Oil on linen
60x72 inches
2011
Padang Bai III
Oil on linen
24x30 inches
2005
Padang Bai III
Some beaches in north Bali have black sand which transforms the color of the water. I’ve added a hint of jukung (canoe) at the top to anchor the image.
Ancol XIII
6am in Jakarta. Ancol XIII is about the colors on the water at first light in the Jakarta Bay.
Ancol XIII
Oil on linen
44x28 inches
2008
Java Beacon II
Oil on linen
24x24 inches
2006
Java Beacon II
Java Beacon II is about the air in Jakarta. I’ve used a large palette of colors to show the way the sun tries to get through the particles of polluted air in this city near the equator. The beacons are used by a variety of people navigating the same water: the navy, fisher people, pleasure craft, and industry.
Indian Ocean
Credits, clockwise from top: Jakarta Harbor IV, oil on paper painting by Danielle Eubank; All photos of paintings by Danielle Eubank. Map © Copyright 1998-2015 Owl and Mouse Educational Software