Down in the turquoise waters of the sea are ocean rocks hollowed by the waves into caves and grotesque shapes. Around them grows sea-weed and coral in every shade of the rainbow. The rays of sunlight shine the ripples of the surface down on the sandy floor littered with seashells and starfish. In the distance dolphins play around a diver against the background of giant kelp.

“I arrived at another hall, the roof of which was of a pale blue, spangled with constellations of silver stars, and supported by porphyry pillars of a paler red than ordinary. The whole of the floor of this hall, except a narrow path behind the pillars, paved with black, was hollowed into a huge basin, many feet deep, and filled with the purest, most liquid and radiant water. The bottom was paved with all kinds of refulgent stones, of every shape and hue. Led by an irresistible desire, I undressed, and plunged into the water. I rose to the surface, shook the water from my hair, and swam as in a rainbow, amid the coruscations of the gems below seen through the agitation caused by my motion. Then, with open eyes, I dived, and swam beneath the surface. And here was a new wonder. For the basin, thus beheld, appeared to extend on all sides like a sea, with here and there groups as of ocean rocks, hollowed by ceaseless billows into wondrous caves and grotesque pinnacles. Around the caves grew sea-weeds of all hues, and the corals glowed between. I thought I had been enchanted; and that when I rose to the surface, I should find myself miles from land, swimming alone upon a heaving sea; but when my eyes emerged from the waters, I saw above me the blue spangled vault, and the red pillars around.”

— Phantastes, by George MacDonald

“The sky was pure, flat gold like the background of a medieval picture. The ocean was gold too, in the offing, flecked with innumerable shadows. The nearer waves, though golden where their summits caught the light, were green on their slopes: first emerald, and lower down a lustrous bottle green, deepening to blue where they passed beneath the shadow of other waves.… Far below him in a vast, momentary valley he saw the thing that had missed him. It was an irregularly shaped object with many curves and re-entrants. It was variegated in colour like a patch-work quilt-flame colour, ultramarine, crimson, orange, gamboge, and violet. It sat to the water like a skin, curving as the water curved. It took the wave's shape at the top, so that for a moment half of it was already out of sight beyond the ridge and the other half still lying on the higher slope. This thing might have been thirty acres or more in area.… And that is the nature of the floating islands of Perelandra.”
—Perelandra, Chapter 3 by C.S. Lewis

I love playing with water and other refractive materials in the sunlight.

Although we tend to think of it more in the summer, the ocean is there all year.

This was inspired by the Disney short film “Piper”.

This was part of a three-part color series I created back in 2011. The backgrounds are from fractals, put together in Paint Shop Pro.
Green As the Grass
Red As the Flame

Not more than one person in five hundred years finds this tiny island. It doesn't stay in one place very long. But anyone who is drawn to these mysterious lanterns, and comes to get a closer look, vanishes into another world, and never comes back. The question is, do they want to?

A lone ship tossed on a stormy sea. Created in Vue.

Light rays are one of those things that appear rarely in nature but frequently in art. But I guess in a sense that's what art is - a selective view of nature. And the rays do add some nice depth to a lot of scenes.

This image was made almost entirely in Paint Shop Pro, but I thought a subtle fractal background made the water more interesting.

This scene from some far-away frozen planet was created in Terragen. I don't remember if it's where I got the name, but it makes me think of John Rutter's Distant Land.