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Delphine Mestdagh

@delphine-art.bsky.social

Hi! 🌊

I'm proud to introduce Oceans Unmined, a #sciart project for #ArtSeaMatchmaking 💙
We'll make #coloringpages of #deepseacreatures and we'll organise workshops for children to raise awareness about #deepseabeauty and #DeepSeaMining 🐙

More #marinebiology and #art soon!

#ClarionClippertonZone

November 8, 2025 at 5:19 PM

Delphine Mestdagh

@delphine-art.bsky.social

Hi!

I wanted to share these first #coloringpages that I made for an upcoming project 💙
They all show #deepseacreatures living in the #ClarionClippertonZone

Would you like to see more?
Let me know!

September 20, 2025 at 4:26 PM

Delphine Mestdagh

@delphine-art.bsky.social

Hi!

Me again, posting another oilpainted fish for #SundayFishSketch
An oilpainting of a Gigantura...
Hope you like it!
If you do, check out www.delphinemestdagh.be to see all my paintings 😊

Love to hear from you in the comments

#sciart #deepsea

This is an oilpainting of a fish called Gigantura or a telescope fish.
The painting has a dark brown background with a silvery green fish. You could consider it a fairly typical deep-sea fish: it also has a mouth full of needle-shaped, sharp teeth that can slide in and out when catching and eating large prey. I really love the smooth, silvery shine of the fish, it reflects the least amount of light of other bioluminescent creatures. To protect and camouflage itself, it usually swims vertically in the water column.

Detail of the head and the awesome eyes. Telescopic eyes are not uncommon in the deep sea, but usually, they are pointed upward, as in the hatchetfish and the barreleye. Gigantura thus appears to carry binoculars and is hence called telescope fish.

I thought it was important to also show a detail of the caudal fin, since the animal is named after it. Gigantura is a compound name: "giganteus" is Latin and indeed translates to giant, whereas "uras" is Greek and means tail. So, the name refers to the long lower lobe of the caudal fin. The animal itself (including the tail) measures only 5 to 20 cm.

May 25, 2025 at 5:42 PM

Delphine Mestdagh

@delphine-art.bsky.social

Hi y'all!

I wanted to share this painting I made some time ago for #MerMay

Hope you like it 😊

This is a part out of an oil painting showing an alien-like mermaid floating in the abyss, with a rocky wall as a background. I based this creature on an octopus, painting the tentacles and a transparent head. The colors I used are mainly violets and blues with sparks of yellow for contrast. The eyes of the mermaid are also yellow and based on those of an octopus.

May 16, 2025 at 6:41 PM

Delphine Mestdagh

@delphine-art.bsky.social

Hi everybody!

Introducing my Greenland Shark for #sundayfishsketch
I hope you like it ☺️
If you do, let me know, I love hearing from you!

You can see all my artwork on my website www.delphinemestdagh.be

I'm introducing another painting from my series "Beyond the Twilightzone". It's a Greenland shark that I painted completely with a grayish green palet.
In Beyond the Twilightzone I wrote about this fish:

"The Greenland shark is a true record-breaker. First, they live in the cold waters from Canada to Norway and at 7 meters, they are the largest Arctic fish.
They grow slowly, only one cm per year. This is due to their slow metabolism. Actually, everything goes a little slower with this giant: they also swim slowly. This has made the shark an opportunistic hunter but also a scavenger. It eats fish, seabirds, seals and also drowned land animals such as reindeer.
During the cold winters, sharks often swim on the surface and have a chance to encounter such morsels.
They also age slowly. The Greenland shark is the longest-lived vertebrate in the world and is estimated to likely live for over 400 years! Think for a moment what times this shark has swum through! Humanity in Europe was busy with the likes of Mozart, Darwin and Napoleon.
Meanwhile, this giant wandered ignorantly into the depths. That is if it was not being caught by humans. Until 1960, they were fished en masse for their liver oil. Their meat is also poisonous unless smoked or double-cooked.
Moreover, their slow metabolism may account for their longevity, but also the fact that they only become sexually mature after 150 years! The eggs are incubated internally, and only ten young are born.
All this together makes Somniosus microcephalus very vulnerable, and it takes a long time for the population to recover."

March 16, 2025 at 4:31 PM

Delphine Mestdagh

@delphine-art.bsky.social

Happy #sundayfishsketch !!

This is my anglerfish I painted a couple of years ago...

Hope you like it 😊
Check out all my deep sea and microworld paintings on my website www.delphinemestdagh.be

Love to hear from you 💙

The anglerfish is a terrifying-looking fish with a large maw filled with sharp teeth. Her stomach is elastic, so she can swallow large prey in one go. She is dark brown to black, which makes her almost invisible in the dark all around. She is not very tall, barely 20cm, but long fin rays envelop her like a net of filaments. She also possesses a rod on her forehead with a whitish, luminous tassel. With these, she lures curious, unsuspecting animals to her mouth. She is not an active hunter. She swims slowly and weightlessly in the slow current, waiting for her meal.
I use the words "her" and "she" because this is what the female anglerfish look like.
The male, who usually does not grow larger than a few centimeters is also seen in the illustration: the measly little appendage on the belly of Ms. Anglerfish.

This is also part of the text that I wrote for my book Beyond the Twilightzone. It's more of a catalog of all my deep sea paintings. I dream to make it as a gorgeous artbook someday...

But for now, the catalog is for sale on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beyond-Twilightzone-Delphine-Mestdagh/dp/1916849776/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

February 23, 2025 at 8:41 AM

Delphine Mestdagh

@delphine-art.bsky.social

I'm happy to be here on #sundayfishsketch
Presenting my dragonfish 💙
I hope you like it!

You can visit my website and see all of my deep sea paintings!
=> www.delphinemestdagh.be

#marinebiology
#sciart
#deepsea
#oilpainting
#scientificillustration

This is a painting of a dragonfish. I painted it reddish brown, while in real life it is actually one of the darkest colored creatures on earth. Reddish brown is a colour that is also hardly visible; because in the pitch black darkness of the abyss, red dissolves after just 1,5 meters.
This little fish is also fairly small, barely 15cm. It can open its mouth very wide. It also possesses the typical long, needle-like teeth, the large eyes to catch maximum light, the light organs on the belly and a lure on a wire.
As far as we know, this is the only fish in the deep sea that can perceive the red colour. All other deep-sea fish only see and/or produce blue light because blue light remains furthest visible. The dragonfish is not only able to see red, but it is the only fish that can also produce red light. Under the eye on the painting, there's the light organ. Admittedly, this type of light dissolves after only 1.5 meters in the dark. However, that is enough for this hunter. When prey animals such as shrimp are within one and a half meters of the red light, the dragonfish can see them perfectly while he himself remains completely invisible.

February 9, 2025 at 6:25 PM

Delphine Mestdagh

@delphine-art.bsky.social

Hi y'all and an awesome #sundayfishsketch 💙

🌊 Showing the amazing blobfish 🌊

Hope you like it, if you do, let me know 😊

#deepsea #oilpainting #sciart #marinebiology #blobfish

This is an oilpainting of a blobfish, it is painted mainly with grayish greens. The fish itself doesn't have much defintition; it has a gelatinous body, with tiny spikes on it's head and kind of a big mouth. I painted the fish as it is in its natural habitat: among the rocks some 1200m deep off the coasts of Australia and Tasmania.
When he was first seen by human eyes, he was sadly dead. He had been accidentally caught in a dragnet and brought to the surface. With the release of tremendous pressure, his body turned into a hideous, misshapen blob. By this name and appearance, this wretch became known and famous, it has often been voted the ugliest animal in the world. Which is really sad, especially because this fish is just awesome. Did you know that this fish can live more than 100 years? And that the female lays 100,000 eggs in a "nest" on top of a piece of rock? These fish have very little muscle. And not much of a sturdy skeleton, either. This allows Psychrolutes to withstand the tremendous pressure.

February 2, 2025 at 7:23 PM

Delphine Mestdagh

@delphine-art.bsky.social

Hi all 🐙

I wanted to jump back into posting and introduce my Vampire squid!
It has passed by earlier in reposts of @dsbsoc-arts.bsky.social
But it kind of deserves a lot of attention, I think it's so pretty!!
Hope you like it too!

Kindly 💙

#squid #deepsea #oilpainting #sciart #marinebiology

This is an oilpainting of a vampire squid, I made it for the series called Beyond the Twilightzone.
Its name suggests that it is a bloodthirsty monster. Vampyroteuthis infernalis literally means "vampire squid from hell".
The name is certainly consistent with its appearance: it is blood red and has spiny tentacles. When it floats weightlessly in the darkness, it is as if it is wearing a dark cape. The similarities to the terrifying Dracula are telling. Although I think it looks very pretty. Also the vampire squid is not blood-lusting. On the contrary, it eats marine snow that it catches with two long threads set with fine hairs. Marine snow is formed by mainly dead plankton whose remains swirl to the depths as snow. The squid makes balls of it and eats them (I know...)
Furthermore, the Vamyroteuthis is calm, rather shy and somewhat fearful. When it feels threatened, it slaps its tentacles over its head and hides in its "cape", whose spines now stand out menacingly. This, of course, makes him very uninteresting as prey.
The painting is mainly in shades of red, while the inside of its cape is painted in a contrasting green. And as if the vampire squid isn't cute enough, I painted its eye bright blue.
On the background there's a contour of a vampire squid fading into the dark abyss. You might still see glowing mock eyes on top of the head...

January 30, 2025 at 7:04 PM

Delphine Mestdagh

@delphine-art.bsky.social

Hi everyone 💛

I've been away from you all for a while, I'm sorry to say my dear father passed away two weeks ago.

This is a painting I made for him.
He never really liked photos and he thought family pictures were private. I respect this and share this sad news with a little painting of mine 🐯

This is a little gouache painting I made on paper.
It shows a tiger walking out of the woods and stepping into the daylight.
I made this painting as a gift for my father who passed away two weeks ago... He had a bad heart condition for years. In 2020 he had a huge surgery. I thought he was so brave for years and years. He just kept fighting for his life. That's why I painted this tiger for him when he was recovering in the hospital in 2020. I thought the tiger represented my dear papa very well as he bravely walked into a new day after his surgery.
But his condition still got worse and worse and it finally took his life. It broke my heart to see that he was beaten. I love my father so so much and miss him a lot, tears are just rolling as I am writing this... I will always remember his strength, his perseverance, his warm heart, the sparkle in his eyes...

January 26, 2025 at 5:26 PM

Delphine Mestdagh

@delphine-art.bsky.social

Hi all!

Merry #sundayfishsketch!!

This is my barreleye, painted with #oiloncanvas.
I painted quite a few deep sea portraits and I found all the creatures wonderful and extraordinary... But there's something about the barreleye...

Thanks everyone for your attention and love 💙

#sciart

I'm presenting another one of my paintings from the series "Beyond the Twilightzone". This time I'm showing a Macropinna microstoma AKA barreleye. It's a very dark brown fish, almost disappearing in the dark blue background. It has a most peculiar head. You might suspect that the eyes are in front and that the fish is hanging out, looking somewhat pitifully ahead. But nothing could be further from the truth: those are the nostrils. The eyes are the two large, green bulbs in the head!
And if that's not striking enough, the barreleye can see through its skull!
The transparent dome not only gives the fish a good view, but it also protects its marvelous eyes from the stings of one of his favourite meals: jellyfish. To get those, he only has a small mouth. So, the barreleye must be able to strike very precisely. For that, the eyes help him again. When he sees a snack swimming by above, the barreleye gets ready. It points its nose at the prey and turns its eyes like binoculars in the same direction! I mean come on... You can't make up creatures like this, right?
I've met many extraordinary creatures already, but the barreleye is something different for sure!
I hope you like it!
Remember you can see all my paintings on my website: www.delphinemestdagh.be

December 29, 2024 at 5:58 PM

Delphine Mestdagh

@delphine-art.bsky.social

Hi!

That's me in the middle and I'm surrounded by tiny and some larger microbe paintings I made this year.
This is my #artvsartist2024

Most of these paintings you can see on my website ☺️
That's www.delphinemestdagh.be

Happy holidays!!

#sciart #microbes #oiloncanvas

This is my Art VS Artist 2024. There's (from the top left corner and left to right) a tiny painting (the size of a microscope slide: 3 by 1 inches) of a Stentor, from a mini series I like to call "Slidescapes".
My latest painting I called "Dreamscape", I'll introduce that one properly another time, but basically there's a waterbear-cloud drifting in front of a nature landscape. Like when you're relaxing in nature and you find yourself staring into the distance, that moment when your mind starts to drift and dreamscapes form.
Top right corner, there's another Slidescape, with a waterbear.
A completely orange painting of a microbe called Didinium.
Then there's a picture of me! Hi!!
Next is a painting of another waterbear, be sure to check it out on my website! It is my number one favorite painting of this year! It has beautiful details and I love the colors. There's lots of bright green and blue, with orange lightspots everywhere. I think it's my most cheerful painting ever :)
Then there's another Slidescape, a tiny portrait of a microbe called Legendrea loyazae. Next is actually another piece from my favorite painting I just told you about. But now you see the tun of the waterbear. It is some sort of "hibernation" form the waterbear goes into when times are hard (lack of water for example), I'm crazy about tuns for some reason. And it's beautifully detailed as well (visist www.delphinemestdagh.be to see the complete painting!) and last is another tiny Slidescape of a Didinium.
I'm new on BlueSky and I started by introducing my earlier pieces, but I'll start introducing these jewels too!
Merry Christmas and happy new year!

December 23, 2024 at 6:02 PM

Delphine Mestdagh

@delphine-art.bsky.social

I hope you all have an amazing #sundayfishsketch

Presenting my oil painted Viperfish!

You can find the complete series of Beyond the Twilightzone -portraits on my website:
www.delphinemestdagh.be

Wishing you all wonderful Holidays 💙

#sciart #oilpainting #scientificillustration #marinebiology

This is an oilpainting of a Chauliodus sloani, AKA Viperfish. This peculiar fish is named after the viper, because of its fearsome teeth.
They are indeed very long, translucent and sharp as needles. They are so long that they don't even fit in its mouth. When the viperfish closes its jaws, the teeth go along its face and the tips of the longest ones come right up next to its eyes. The shown viperfish is not that big: 35cm at most in real life. I also painted its prey: mostly small animals like shrimp.
The picture is completely painted with shades of phtalo green (a bit greener than petroleum) and gave a lot of attention to the scales that are all painted separately.

December 22, 2024 at 5:13 PM

Delphine Mestdagh

@delphine-art.bsky.social

Hi everyone!

Hope you're all having a nice Sunday 😊

This Eptatetrus stoutii AKA the notorious hagfish is my contribution for #sundayfishsketch

It's one of my most popular paintings from the Beyond the Twilightzone series

Hope you like it!

Cheers 💙

This is another of my oilpaintings from the series I called Beyond the Twilightzone. It's a series with 32 deepsea creatures.

The hagfish is another living fossil: it remained unchanged for 330 million years.
It is best known for its slime production. This gave them the nickname of "slime eel." When harassed, it releases a protein from the pores on the sides of its body, which becomes a terrible slimy substance when in contact with seawater that is not only difficult to remove from fishing gear but also ends up clogging gills.

I painted the hagfish on a dark, sandy seafloor. The fish itself is in a fairly bright pink and lays curled up in a knot (they often do this to remove exces slime!) facing the viewer with an open mouth.

December 15, 2024 at 5:11 PM

Delphine Mestdagh

@delphine-art.bsky.social

Hi all!

Presenting my painting of a Nautilus!
It is part of a series of 32 oil paintings called "Beyond the Twilightzone"

There is a catalog available on Amazon:

www.amazon.co.uk/Beyond-Twili...

#artandscience #sciart #marinebiology #deepsea #deepseartist #contemporarypainter #oiloncanvas

This is a painting of a nautilus. The nautilus is a cephalopod, which literally translates to "head foot" in Greek, just like the octopus. They are called so because their tentacles are attached to their heads. However, that's where the similarities with the octopus end. The nautilus does not have eight tentacles like the octopus. Instead, it has 90, with which it searches the sea floor for goodies. Neither does it possess suction cups, nor does it squirt ink.
On the other hand, it is the only cephalopod to have a beautiful shell with a red tiger pattern, having been born with it, making him the perfect mini-version of his parents. Its pearly home can be closed with a flap that resembles a cap.
On the painting there's a nautilus "swimming" backwards showing it's tentacles. For the painting I used Phtalo green as the main colour, to create the somewhat eerie atmosphere, with a blurry background. The eye looks at the spectator, like it really tries to connect with the viewer. The Nautilius pompilius has been bobbing around in the deep sea for 500 million years. But in recent decades, its existence has been seriously threatened by a shell-collecting frenzy.
With the Beyond the Twilightzone I wanted to raise awareness for the beauty of the unknown deep sea and its inhabitants.

December 12, 2024 at 3:55 PM

Delphine Mestdagh

@delphine-art.bsky.social

Hi all!

This is my second contribution for #sundayfishsketch , painted with oilcolour on canvas.
The giant oarfish, another awesome fish from the deep sea.
I hope you like it!

If you want to see more of my paintings, you can visit my website:
www.delphinemestdagh.be

Thanks!

Have a lovely Sunday

This is a oilpainting of a giant oarfish or Regalecus glesne. This painting is part of a series called "Beyond the Twilightzone". It's a very long fish, the average length for an oarfish is between 3 and 8 meters. This makes regalecus glesne the longest bony fish in the world. It normally hangs vertically in the water column, but I painted the creature horizontally. The fish has a silvery colour and resembles a waving ribbon. The long dorsal fin is red and runs from the head to the tip of the tail. On the head the rays of the fin seem to become an impressive crest.
The background is very dark blue, almost black.

December 8, 2024 at 5:10 PM

Delphine Mestdagh

@delphine-art.bsky.social

Hey all!

I'm here to post my Chimaera monstrosa for #sundayfishsketch
I hope you like it!

Have a nice Sunday 😊

To see more deep sea art, please visit my website:
www.delphinemestdagh.be

💙