British scuba instructor and professional artist Laura Parker was not aware of the Asia Dive Expo (ADEX) Voice of the Ocean competition until she happened to read about it in a Divernet guide to international diving exhibitions earlier this year.
She is delighted that she followed up on the lead, however, because her painting Soft Magic Descending has just made her winner of the prestigious competition’s Artwork category. “I entered on a bit of a whim, hoping to be a finalist, but was surprised and thrilled to hear that one of my two entries was the actual category winner,” Parker told Divernet.
The painting, a recent example of what she calls her “watery reflections”, clearly impressed an illustrious panel at the Singapore diving event when its members selected the winners live on the exhibition’s main stage on 6 April.
ADEX is the largest and longest-running dive show in Asia and the Voice of the Ocean competition embraces nature in photography and videography as well as in art.
The 10-strong judging panel of underwater image-makers was notably star-studded, comprising David Doubilet, Jennifer Hayes, Berkley White, Erin Quigley, Franco Banfi, Kate Jonker, Kay Burn Lim, Nicolas Remy, Tobias Friedrich and William Tan.
Laura Parker, a self-taught painter based in Richmond, Surrey, had entered two paintings and both made it to the final shortlist, but Soft Magic Descending was described by the panel as “a truly stunning work”, with several judges expressing a desire to hang it on their walls at home.
Warm light
The 46 x 46cm painting is in acrylics and pencil on a cradled wood panel. Many of Parker’s previous works have been directly based on her underwater experiences, with images typically reflecting marine life and rusting wrecks, but Soft Magic Descending is a view from topside inspired by walks along meandering streams.
“Soft Magic Descending is an exploration of colours and patterns, chasing and interweaving as warm light darts over dark watery depths,” Parker wrote in her competition-entry description. “I enjoy the infinite possibilities of changing shapes and forms created by these rippling movements, and respond intuitively by moving the paint with bold expressive gestures.
“Using a plasterer’s trowel, rather than a brush, I cannot fully control how the paint moves and blends. Experimenting and taking risks are what thrill me, when I can discover surprising, unexpected imagery as I build up multiple layers of paint to evoke light dancing on water, casting shadows, creating shapes and moods.”
“For me, making art is exciting, scary, frustrating, addictive, rewarding and an utterly indispensable part of my life,” adds Parker. Her work first appeared on Divernet in 2021 when the Caribbean-inspired artwork In Deep was chosen to be projected over three floors of a clothing store in London's Oxford Street.
She had painted it “as an antidote to the bleakness of lockdown, as I remembered serene moments experienced under the waves”.
Parker qualified as a diver in the British Virgin Islands in 2006 at the age of 54 and returned to the UK to become an instructor the following year. Many of her underwater paintings were based on her experiences diving and photographing regularly in Grenada.
Find out more about the artist on her website, and more about ADEX Voice of the Ocean here.
Also on Divernet: Scuba diver lights London blue, Father of underwater art: Andre Laban, Underwater photographer who doesn’t get wet, The diver who likes to leave his mark
