26—MARYLEBONE JOURNAL WATER MUSIC
CULTURE
vividly and colourfully bring to life the extraordinary story of this voyage – in a way that the written word simply cannot,” says Captain Beale. “The artwork that she has produced is critical to this project, because it allows viewers to participate in the voyage and experience the travel themselves through her interpretation of the water that surrounded us every day.” It’s not the first time Danielle has
risen to Beale’s challenge. She also acted as expedition artist on his 2003 trip covering the 16,000 miles from Indonesia to the Seychelles to Madagascar to the Cape of Good Hope to Ghana. That expedition proved that such a journey would have been possible for traditionally built double outrigger vessels dating back to the early 8th century, as depicted at the Borobudur Temple in Indonesia. While the two adventures
illustrate that she is now a virtuoso
in interpreting water, it is only been in the last decade that Danielle has embraced it as a focus for her artistic attentions. What took her so long to come around to tackling a subject she so clearly loves? “Growing up on the seaside I was exposed to a lot of pictures of water – crashing waves, dolphins – that I couldn’t relate to,” she explains. “Also painting water is really, really difficult. It’s really hard to paint water that has any kind of atmosphere, emotion or motion.” A trip in 2001 shifted her thinking
toward the possibilities of the wet stuff. “My friend and I travelled around for a year. At one point we found ourselves in La Doñana in Spain. It’s a very, very protected park so you’re not allowed to go a certain number of metres inland from the water,” she remembers. “So I spent all my time sitting on the beach with my back to the beautiful ocean painting the dunes! But after several days of this I got really bored, and
I turned around. And the very first picture just had this little corner of water in it. Then the next one had a little more water, and then the next one had a little more. Pretty soon, they were all water.” The body of work from Phoenicia
re-imagines the ripples, reflections, bouncing colours, shifting light and liquid movement of the epic journey, inviting the eye to dive in. Without setting foot on a 6th century sailing ship, the viewer can get a glimpse of how Tunisian or Syrian seas might appear. “It’s something that all humans have in common,” Danielle says. “We all need water and we all need to look after our resources, so it’s something that everyone can relate to.” Now that this expedition is finished and the art has gone on show, does she have further waterborne adventures in her sights? “Oh definitely! Are you kidding? Absolutely, I can’t wait. Watch this space.”
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