Blue Girdled Angel fishes

61cm x 43cm
Acrylics on textured board

The variety of colours and patterns displayed on tropical fishes is amazing.
I have created an abstract composition featuring blue girdled angel fishes to illustrate this point.
Are these colours and patterns simply for recognition, as a defence mechanism or do they serve a more subtle purpose?
I can only marvel at how such an exotic colour and body pattern could ever evolve? If an artist wanted a lesson in colour contrast and harmony, the marine world gives a myriad of examples.

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