Pygmy Seahorse, Hippocampus bargibanti

Artist: Roger Swainston
www.rogerswainston.com  
www.anima.net.au

Title: Pygmy Seahorse, Hippocampus bargibanti

Dimensions: 30cm x 25cm

Medium: Archival paper, pigment ink

Artist bio:
Roger Swainston is recognised as one of the foremost marine life artists and underwater drawers in the world. With a breadth of experience unequalled in his field and with more than 25 years of artistic and scientific endeavour, his paintings are renown around the world for their accuracy and vibrancy. 

After graduating from the University of WA with a Zoology degree in 1981 Roger Swainston took part in a variety of scientific expeditions between 1983 and 1991 whilst building a career as a scientific illustrator. These included surveying the fish fauna of the south coast with the WA Museum, the deepwater fauna off the northwest shelf with CSIRO and the reef fauna of Papua New Guinea with CRI. During this period he also produced numerous guidebooks on the identification of fish and other marine life and worked with scientific institutions around the world such as; the Smithsonian Institute, United Nations FAO, CSIRO and many other Museums and government departments concerned with the marine environment. 

Roger now divides his time between Nantes in France and Fremantle, Western Australia and has two major projects. One project is to be exhibited permanently at the new Perth Museum from November 2020 where a 5m painting of the coral reef will be displayed. The second project is to paint all the Rocklobsters of the world which will be the subject of a book.

Artist reflection:
As a conservationist, Roger has supported ecological projects and research, and works closely with conservation organizations to help protect fishery resources and increase knowledge of marine life. In recent years Roger has continued this study of the marine environment with large scale underwater drawings and surveys of reef sites around the world. He has pursued scientific illustration with life size portraits of individual fish, intimate studies of their surface, form and function.