Hunting Sardine Run Fish Painting 150x100cm by Olga Nikitina

Description

Hunting. Sardine Run Fish Painting 150x100cm by Olga Nikitina

This artwork already found its home but I will be happy to create a similarone special for you. My artworks are created fully by hand with a palette knife in oil, each piece always turns out unique and can never be an exact copy of a photo. Texture, color blending, and brush strokes are part of the individuality of an original painting.

Original oil painting by Olga Nikitina is inspired by the world-famous Sardine Run along the coast of South Africa — one of the most powerful and breathtaking natural phenomena on Earth. Created using a bold impasto technique with a palette knife, the artwork captures the dramatic movement of a baitball: thousands of sardines rotating in a tightly formed, living vortex beneath the ocean’s surface.

Fish painting immerses the viewer directly into the underwater scene. The swirling circular composition creates a strong sense of motion, depth, and tension, echoing the constant movement required for survival during the Sardine Run. Thick, sculptural layers of oil paint form the bodies of the fish, applied energetically with a palette knife to emphasize rhythm and direction rather than precise detail. This expressive approach allows the baitball to feel alive — shifting, pulsing, and transforming with every glance.

A rich palette of deep blues, turquoise, teal, and ocean greens dominates the canvas, evoking the vastness and mystery of the South African waters. Lighter highlights suggest shafts of sunlight penetrating the water column, illuminating the silvery movement of the sardines. Darker tones add contrast and depth, hinting at the unseen predators and the immense scale of the ocean environment.

Unlike traditional marine paintings that focus on individual animals, this artwork celebrates collective instinct and unity. The sardines are depicted as one dynamic organism rather than separate fish, reflecting the true nature of a baitball. Shark deep into it searching for a moment of attack. This makes the painting not only a representation of marine life but also a visual metaphor for cooperation, resilience, and the raw intelligence of nature.

Olga Nikitina is internationally known for her underwater art and her deep personal connection to the ocean. Her work is informed by direct experience diving and observing marine life in its natural habitat, including South Africa’s Sardine Run. This firsthand knowledge allows her to convey not just the appearance of the underwater world, but its energy, emotion, and atmosphere.

The impasto technique plays a central role in the artwork’s impact. Thick oil paint applied with a palette knife creates a highly textured surface that interacts beautifully with light. From different angles, the painting reveals new details, making it a constantly evolving visual experience. This tactile quality is especially striking in real life and is a defining characteristic of Olga Nikitina’s signature style.

Measuring 150 × 100 cm, this format painting has a strong presence and works perfectly as a focal point in contemporary interiors. It is well suited for living rooms, offices, coastal homes, galleries, and private collections. The artwork appeals to collectors of original marine art, underwater paintings, and expressive impasto works inspired by nature.

Painted on high-quality stretched canvas using professional-grade oil paints, the artwork is created to last for generations.

Ships rolled in tube.

Fish painting is signed by the artist and is a one-of-a-kind original artwork, not a print or reproduction.

This painting is more than a decorative object — it is an immersive underwater experience, a tribute to the Sardine Run of South Africa, and a powerful reminder of the beauty, movement, and intelligence of the natural world.