Freelance artist and dive instructor Kerrie Everett Horrocks gets her inspiration 16 metres underwater.
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Armed with a pencil and waterproof paper, the Queenslander frequently dives the Museum of Underwater Art on the John Brewer Reef off the coast of Townsville to draw its sculptures and marine life.
The sculptures by British artist Jason deCaires Taylor are covered in various species of coral, which slowly grows over each installation.
"If you stop and study them they take on a whole different form - not just an artwork on the sea floor but part of this living environment," Horrocks told AAP.
The first commercial group scuba-drawing trip to the museum was held in unusually clear conditions in 2022.
"Everybody was bursting after these dives and bringing up their sketches from the sea floor because this was something totally new and really cool," Horrocks said.
Horrocks will host a second group trip in August from as part of the North Queensland contemporary art festival PUNQ.
Drawing underwater requires preparation - extra weights are needed to prevent divers floating away while sketching.
Waterproof polycarbonate paper is used and while regular old graphite pencils work best, Horrocks has also experimented with oil pastels and crayons.
Underwater sketching is a meditative experience and it's possible to zone out and forget about your dive buddy, she said.
The solution is to position divers wanting to draw the same sculpture directly opposite each other.
"Then it's just a matter of flicking their eyes up to check on their buddy, and communicating where your air is," Horrocks said.
The museum is home to fish such as the Redthroat Emperor, Coral Trout and Barramundi Cod as well as blacktip reef sharks, turtles, nudibranchs and even a resident octopus.
Countless fish swim by during drawing sessions, sometimes coming closer to investigate what the divers are up to, Horrocks said.
The most curious ones end up in her sketches.
"I have fish in the artwork not because I've drawn them in quickly but because they have sat there for prolonged periods," she said.
The museum, run by the dive company Pacific Marine Group in Townsville, opened to the public in 2020.
It features the Coral Greenhouse installation, which holds the Guinness World Record for the largest underwater art structure and sits 16m below the surface.
Other sculptures have been installed in shallower water, and first-time divers can sketch The Sentinels - sculptures of pioneering marine scientists and conservators - at 5m down.
Anyone who has done a pencil drawing on paper has enough experience to give underwater drawing a go, Horrocks said.
The August 10-11 workshop is part of North Queensland's contemporary art festival PUNQ, which runs from August 1-18.
Australian Associated Press
