Even The Fish Cried

1998
Egg tempera

One day in 1997 when I was standing on the pier at Melby in Sandness I got a sense that all was not well in our oceans, and I painted an instinctive meditation in egg tempera called ‘Even the Fish Cried’. The fish farm print was made alongside this painting which could be seen as a counterpoint in terms of the difference between wild and farmed fish. This deep-rooted feeling that defied logic was telling me something was wrong with the ocean, that something was out of balance. In my heart I felt absence and loss, that something is missing, that the ecological chain has been broken, a chain that had helped to sustain the early peoples of the isles for Millenia. The disappearance of the large seatrout shoals of old from the coasts around Shetland and the possible reasons for their decline were bothering me.

In this painting the sea trout shoals of old gather in as if in council around a mysterious man in the boat who is saying a prayer of healing for the fish who rise in a collective lament for our oceans. For now, the man offers temporary rest respite and hope, they recognise him, and he recognises them. The sea trout in the painting are wild and free whilst the sea trout in the in the cage are artificially grown and are captive. Look closely enough and you will see that the fish in both these works are weeping but for very different reasons.