​ANN COPEMAN  
Enigma – anatomy of a barnacle
watercolour, ink on watercolour paper
76 x 56 cm
Price On Application
The marine environment is vast, enigmatic, and unfathomable from most vantage points.  My art research initially led me in a wide deep arc before casting me up on the tidal zone of our Southern Reef shoreline.  The Giant Rock Barnacle Austromegabalanus nigrescens, an inhabitant of this zone, became the ‘hero-ine’ of my artmaking.  I was fascinated by the link between barnacles and Charles Darwin - naturalist and early visitor to Albany - whose unwavering research into natural history culminated in his ground-breaking treatise The Origin of Species, which raised consciousness of the evolution of life on our planet. He spent eight long years immersed in barnacle anatomy, physiology, and ecology. 
Inspiration for my drawing of a barnacle came from a photo taken by my partner - a conservation biologist / nature photographer.  I chose to draw this work with pen, ink, and watercolours, using as reference a colour chart that Darwin himself used to describe specimens whilst working as a naturalist for five years, on the Sloop HMS Beagle, in the 1830s. What became important to me in making this artwork was the reminder that we are all connected; the naturalist, the colour chart maker, the artist, and the humble barnacle are all products of an evolutionary process that has been underway for eons.  The wonders of the natural world will always inspire the curiosity of artists and scientists.
 
REFERENCES
C R Darwin: The Origin of Species, 1859
F W Nicholas, J M Nicholas: Charles Darwin in Australia, 1989
R Carson:  The Sea around Us, 1951; Under the Sea-Wind, 1941; The Edge of the Sea, 1955
W J Dakin:  Australian Sea Shores, 1952
D Jones, G Morgan:  A Field Guide to Crustaceans of Australian Waters, 1994
P Syme:  Werner’s Nomenclature of Colours; Adapted for Zoology, Botany, Chemistry, Minerology, Astronomy, and the Arts, 1821
Ernest Hodgkin and Anne Brearley:  Swanland: Estuaries and Coastal Lagoon of South-Western Australia, 2005, University of Western Australia Press.

BIO SUMMARY
Ann completed a Bachelor of Visual Art (BVA) at Edith Cowan University, Perth in 2006.  In 2011 after further studies, she was granted a Master of Visual Art (MVA) from Monash University, Melbourne.  She has participated in many exhibitions over the past two decades, as a member of MIX Artists Inc in Albany and of Butter Factory Studios in Denmark, WA.