Red Octopus Painting

‘Red Octopus’ is painted with oils and silver leaf on canvas. It forms part of a series of paintings called ‘In the Balance’ which focused on the magnificence of some endangered animals superbly painted in Alexander’s hyper-realistic style. The octopus, which is painted with detail in bright red oil paint is nestled between some coral. The background is gilded with silver leaf. The coral is textured using a texture paste and manipulated with a pallet knife. Oil paint has been ‘pulled’ over the texture exposing the fine detail of the coral. There is another interesting dimension to the artwork. When one looks closer, more coral can be seen. This has been embossed underneath the silver leaf. The beauty of gilding is that when the artwork is hung on a wall it reflects light and as the light changes throughout the day so does the artwork. The light will expose the coral and at other times it will remain hidden. The inspiration to paint the Red Octopus was to give hope for its survival. To bring it before the viewer and create awareness about the plight of this fragile subject matter. Octopi are intriguing subject matters to paint. Like all octopus the Red Octopus can change its colour and texture making its appearance highly variable. Colour can vary from a deep brick red, to brown, to white, or mottled mixtures of the three. The Red Octopus is a predator. As part of its feeding behaviour, it will pounce on prey and display a stereotypical sequence of colour changes at the moment of capture. As with other sea life, pollution, overfishing and habitat destruction pose serious threats .