I'll be the first to admit, I often paint from photographs. Not all of us can hire models or travel to exotic places and have the equipment to capture fantastic underwater photography. But something changes when you begin to let the watercolor interpret what you see, and it becomes something else.

This painting is based on a photo by photographer and surfer Daniel William Fryer of TheSurfingPhotog.com. You will see this photo all over the internet without attribution; see the original here.

Fire and Ice was inspired by one of Val Vieira's (formerly Frey) epic duck dives, the fire of the sun like a lava flow behind her and the cool depths of mother ocean extinguishing the flames.

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