Mark Hobson (Prints)

The tide-pools of the exposed west coast offer bursts of fabulous colour in what can otherwise be a world of drab greys and greens. Giant green anemones owe their colour to algae cells that co-exist within their tissues and sometimes can live over twenty years. I have depicted the surge of an incoming tide when fresh tidbits of food can be swept into reach. Surf grass is swaying in the current and a small tide-pool sculpin is trying to avoid being accidentally pulled into the stinging tentacles of an anemone. These pools are dynamic places where the returning tide alternates between danger and opportunity for the resident creatures. Even the static looking orange sea stars are serious predators to barnacles and mussels that cannot escape their slow digestive enzymes.