Vanuatu is one of the least populated and remotest countries in the World, located in the Melanesia region of the South Pacific Ocean, almost 2000 km east of Australia! Thousands of years ago the elusive Lapita culture populated the islands, they left behind some shards of distinctive pottery and a few other relics. Afterwards the Portuguese explorers, then French explorers arrived and attempted to colonize but the local tribes repelled the attacks and living conditions were so harsh that the explorers packed up and mostly left. Regional conflicts lead to kidnapping of many of the men on the island for labor, and later on, Europeans came to settle on the island to grow coffee and other cash crops. Like most Pacific Ocean countries it was also used in World War 2 by the allies to stage attacks against Japanese occupied islands to the north. A lot of drama for a teeny island in the middle of the ocean. The other drama is tectonic... Vanuatu is an active volcano region, where eruptions lead to creation of new land and fertile soil. In the painting I depicted an underwater volcano next to a coral-encrusted shelf. Underwater volcanoes eventually rise to reach the surface, then create a new island eventually. Its cool because this is one place where the landscape is being created.
To compose the scene, the shelf on the top left had to have higher colour saturation and contrast as compared to the bottom of the shelf, which is shrouded in cyan (PB15 + PG7). The adjacent water is dark blue (PB60) which gives the colour contrast with the underwater flame. A few schools of fish casually swim by.
World Inspired Landscapes: Vanuatu
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