Deep Dive
I had the privilege of doing a deep dive into two incredible collections at Scripps Institution of Oceanography while visiting California last week. The Marine Vertebrate Collection contains two million preserved fish specimens representing 5,600 species. The benthic invertebrates include 800,000 specimens and 7,600 species. These have been collected over decades from diverse marine habitats, including coral reefs, seamounts, hydrothermal vents, hydrocarbon seeps, the abyssal plain, and deep trenches. If you don’t mind dead creatures in glass jars, it’s awesome.
The curators of both collections gave me time to wander through the collections and set up spaces in their labs for me to paint. I could have spent my entire vacation there, but then I would have missed walking the beach and poking in tide pools, birdwatching in coastal wetlands, and exploring the desert. Those sketches are coming soon.
The colors and patterns of moray eels, though faded out of water, remain spectacular.
I had no idea what this was when I selected it; I just knew I’d never seen anything like it. As it turns out, few people have, since it is a marine worm that lives in deep, cold Antarctic waters.
To learn more: Watch this video to go behind the scenes of the Benthic Invertebrate Collection or visit the Scripps collection website.
I have online and in person classes coming up– check them out on the Workshops page.
Drawn In 
What an amazing opportunity for you. Personally, I’d rather look at your paintings of these creatures than seeing them in a jar! Can’t wait to see what else you discovered on your vacation!
Understood. It’s a bit overwhelming to see shelf after shelf of jars. Glad to share the paintings instead.
wow, I don’t know how you were able to choose your specimens… there were so many. What a great day you must have had Jean. Wonderful sketches here
Thanks Mary. Choosing is always a challenge, but when faced with limited time, you just have to go for it and recognize that you probably can’t choose wrong.
Fabulous!! What a terrific vacation; I’m so envious!
I wish I could take you and others along to share the exploration.
“Unfathomable” is the perfect title for that worm! His length, his jaws, his propelling golden bristles, and the frigid depth where he makes his home, all make him one incredible speciman. Beautiful summation in your sketch!
Thanks so much. It can be hard to appreciate deep sea creatures, especially when they are not “beautiful,” but I find the otherworldliness of them a great reminder of how diverse and vast our oceans and Earth are.
Amazing work Jean! How much time did you spend at the Institute sketching and painting? Surely you weren’t allowed to remove specimens from their preservation jars? From the video, it appears sketching the contents in jars would be difficult. Your worm sketches look like they were not crowded but easily seen to decipher their appearance. The eels were awesome. The worm with its retractable sci-fi jaws was just,plain scary! And they have scales (elytra)! Cool! Excellent! Fabulous!
can’t wait to see your tidepool discoveries!
Hi Barb- I spent about 3 hours with the fish and 2 hours with the invertebrates. Part of that time was wandering and choosing. The curators would have let me take specimens out of the jars had I wanted to, but I wasn’t keen on the odor or the closer view. The jars are glass, so despite some distortion, it works fine. I realize that most people would prefer to see flowers to these types of subjects, but diversity is a beautiful thing! Thanks for appreciating it!
I’m with you about appreciating anything remotely nature related. I may have been too tempted to remove the specimens from their jars for an even closer look. But totally get the formaldehyde (or whatever they use nowadays) odor. How nice you were able to spend so much time, and possibly complete the studies. How fun. I’ve been known to sketch roadkills when on vacation, and have a collection of my own specimen jars with interesting things inside. Hope that doesn’t sound too gross! Thanks for sharing everything you learn and paint.
I admire both your endless curiosity and your amazing ability to capture your subjects on paper. Such an amazing opportunity for you to pursue both! THese are lovely.
Thanks so much– I really appreciate your comment. I always start with curiosity and I’ve learned so much seeing where it leads. It was a treat to see these collections!
I’m so glad you got to meet a polychaete worm. Yours is a cousin to the clam worms found on the East Coast. Their parapodia under the microscope are something else with their gold or silver setae. You did a beautiful job capturing the complexity. Love the title “Unfathomable”.
Never thought of seeing them under a microscope, but I bet that’s next level! I’ve seen (and painted) clam worms, too, and they are really fantastic. You wouldn’t expect something that spends so much time in the mud would be so colorful.
Love your work, Jean, especially how detailed it is. I recently read “The Blue Machine” and learned so much about our oceans. The title “unfathomable” is perfect!
Thanks Peggy. I like the way that title works! I’ll have to look for that book. Thanks for the tip.
Benthic invertebrates – very cool, Jean. What a privilege to be invited to draw behind the scenes. They chose the right person! That Scale worm is truly strange. Your eel page is gorgeous – great composition & colors. Our deep-diving Northern elephant seal is back fro a long haul-out – you reminded me because she dives thousands of feet down into those depths for things like squid or bottom fish. Only Sperm whales dive deeper. I’ll be watching her again tomorrow unless she gives is the slip again, which is very possible.