Synchronised swimmers at their best

THOSE who think there’s something a bit fishy about me are probably right. I love fish - not just to eat, but as works of art.

Every fish, from minnow to mackerel, guppy to grouper, is a magnificent creation. Sleek and slippery, lithe and lissome, they grace the seas with their majestic presence.

Forgive me, then, for producing yet another study of our shiny friends. I’ve drawn red gurnard, striped mackerel and darting yellowtails in the past. Now I present a shoal of generic fish dashing towards an unseen goal.

How fish move so quickly in unison I’ll never know. It’s as if they are psychologically conjoined, propelled by a shared impulse to find food or escape a predator. As synchronised swimmers, they are incomparably brilliant.

This acrylic painting tries to capture the speed and intensity of a shoal with a shared objective. But we don't know what that objective is.