Stickleback

My first "study species" as an undergrad at the University of British Columbia, was the three-spine stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus. Clearly, I had many reasons to draw this semi-ugly little marine and freshwater fish. The paintings below I've shown in order from the most recent. Perhaps you can witness the evolution of the stickleback (painting) yourself! (ha)

Low, medium, and high plated stickleback (2012) - a representation of a transitional hybrid zone visible in streams leading to the sea in coastal British Columbia. I painted the above for my friend Anne Dalziel on completion of her PhD.

Stickleback evolution affects ecosystem parameters (2009) - I painted this piece for cover art of our article in the journal, Nature. Unfortunately, they picked a garish cartoon instead.

Three paintings for my undergraduate honour's thesis advisors (2006) - Luke J. Harmon (a lovely little stickleback community); Dolph Schluter (an unfortunate hybrid stickleback); Jonathan B. Shurin (a stickle eyeing a planktonic invertebrate, diaphanosoma)

Fantastical Stickleback - my first painted stickle (gah! 2005), which I created for our lab tech