We all love the ocean. The mysteries beneath the water and the vastness above and below the surface intrigue us with their beauty.

The ocean is a dynamic force, though, and as immense as its beauty is, its power for destruction is great as well. At this writing, the fourth Category 5 hurricane to hit the Atlantic Ocean this season is battering Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands.

My own fascination with the ocean led me to start a series of paintings that I call “Portholes” a couple of months ago. A friend had given me a bunch of wooden circles that had been cut the wrong size for a project he was working on, so I decided to paint them with brightly colored fish. I call them “Portholes” because they show the view of the ocean from the inside of a sailing vessel, as if you were looking out the window of a ship.

I wanted to do something to raise funds for disaster relief, so I decided to donate a portion of the sales from my “Porthole” series to an organization working to assist survivors of the recent hurricanes.

The organization that I have chosen to receive the donations is Team Rubicon. Team Rubicon is an organization that unites the skills and experiences of military veterans with first responders to rapidly deploy emergency response teams to disaster zones.

Team Rubicon has been actively engaged in rescue and recovery efforts for both Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, as well as other disaster relief activities around the world. To this date, They have pulled 73 people, 50 dogs and 26 cats from the waters of Harvey and helped them to safety. 

I will be posting my “Porthole” paintings on my Art for Sale page. The larger paintings are 14″ Diameter and sell for $125.00. I have smaller paintings as well that are 7″ Diameter and sell for $45.00. 20% of all “Porthole” paintings will be donated to Team Rubicon (through November 2017).

You can follow my process of creating the “Portholes” paintings and other artworks on my Instagram and Facebook pages. I plan to do many more!

Life is an Adventure!

BZTAT