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Mar Pacifico

 

The Pacific Ocean is so large, it is bigger than all the land masses on the planet combined. Thirty percent of Earth is covered by the Pacific Ocean. 

 

I grew up very near it in Northern California. For me, the Pacific is an ocean’s ocean. It is what oceans “should” be, because that was my first exposure. I am certain that someone who grew up next to the Indian Ocean would feel the same way about their ocean. It’s my deep, dark blue neighbor. Actually, I always have thought of it more as a family member than a neighbor because it was always there for me. Always fun. Always interesting. Special occasions are often celebrated with the Pacific Ocean. 

 

It was the first body of water I ever considered drawing. I distinctly remember a time when I was sitting on the beach with my mom and dad when I was about 12 years old, staring at the Pacific. The water was moving, crashing, and creating incomprehensible shapes around the rocks. I remember thinking, “I’ll never be able to draw that.”

 

I have painted it! “Santa Monica” [right] is about the peaceful quality of the Pacific Ocean. It was named “Mar Pacifico” by the explorer Ferdinand Magellan which means, “the peaceful sea.” Oil on linen, 44x28 inches, 2010.

San Pedro

Oil on linen

24x30 inches

2005

San Pedro

 

In a formal sense, San Pedro is about the block of shapes at the top of the canvas juxtaposed with the more organic shapes in red, lending themselves to the fine, delicate lines in the most intimate part of the canvas, the bottom center. Conceptually, it is about the exchange of goods, people, and ideas that have been coming in and out of the Port of Los Angeles for centuries, thus the “script” in red. Twenty percent of all cargo that comes into the United States comes through this port. 

Channel Islands Harbor V

I like to explore the relationship between realism and abstraction. Channel Islands Harbor V is a good example of my more “realistic” style. Still, there is no narrative here. The painting is about the blues and golds, cut by the stripe of turquoise one third of the way down from the top. 

Channel Islands Harbor V

Oil on linen

20x32 inches

2008

Part of a Complete Breakfast

Metal Jeep Hubcap, found plastic

10x10x8 inches

2014

Part of a Complete Breakfast

 

Using ubiquitous pieces of plastic like bottle caps and straws found on the roadside, along the beach, or in my own house, I created Part of a Complete Breakfast to make a statement about the ever-present nature of plastic. In the ocean, some of the plastic sinks, and some of it gets broken down by the sun and waves, but never completely disappears and thus gets eaten by fish, turtles, and mammals. It threatens the marine life, the ocean’s ecosystem and, ultimately, us.

Channel Islands Harbor

 

Channel Islands Harbor is all about the turquoise color at the top. There is a sweetness to the boat and the cool sunlight. It feels mid-century California to me.

Channel Islands Harbor

Oil on linen

24x24 inches

2007

Holiday on the Marina III

Oil on linen

24x34 inches

2008

Holiday on the Marina III

 

Holiday on the Marina III is about the pleasure the Pacific Ocean has always given me. I’ve taken the lights reflected from a boat in Oxnard and made them dance the way I feel when I’m on the water. 

Santa Monica Pier

 

Probably my most “realistic” water painting is Santa Monica Pier. I have always been interested in the shapes made by voids in sea foam around piers and other structures. I like to look at them. 

Santa Monica Pier

Oil on linen

26x18 inches

2005

Pacific Ocean

Largest ocean on Earth, 155million square kilometers

World's deepest ocean, 10,911 meters at lowest point

Depended on by 70,000 animal species

Puget Sound

Oil on linen

30x22 inches

2003

Puget Sound

 

In Puget Sound I’m working on the formal landscape, specifically the three stripes of sky, land and sea, as well as the color of light found in north Seattle, Washington. I used a rough texture to evoke the natural rawness of the beach in this part of the world.

Credits, clockwise from top: Channel Islands Harbor III, oil on paper painting by Danielle Eubank; All photos of paintings by Danielle Eubank. Map © d-maps.com

Water artist and ocean artist Danielle Eubank (尤淡瑤) is an award-winning, international abstract water painter and ocean painter. She has painted all of the oceans on the planet to raise awareness about the state of the oceans and climate change. She is a recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant. Her abstract oil paintings are modern and emotive.

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