Artist Marion le Crayon

THIS year’s Fremantle Underwater Film Festival logo is a colourful, fishy affair by South Fremantle artist Marion le Crayon.

Originally a French caricaturist, a few years back le Crayon was on a busman’s holiday in Australia when she was lured west and fell in love with Fremantle and its waters.

“The ocean is the place I go to when I feel a little overwhelmed or have negative feelings,” le Crayon says.

“It cleans my soul.” Although she’s re-established her caricature business and can often be seen quietly sitting at her easel in the corner of a party or function, since coming to Fremantle le Crayon has been developing a distinctive fishy watercolour and ink style and two years ago held her first solo exhibition.

“It is just a really nice experience to draw fish flowing; it’s meditative,” she says.

Her collaboration with the Fremantle Underwater Film Festival came after founder Tania Douthwaite spotted one of le Crayon’s paintings in a local shop.

“She really liked one that I had with its colour and the shape, because it’s almost a circle around a little girl,” le Crayon says.

“She wanted it like a logo, so we thought of ways of modifying it, and I wanted to include the idea of filming.”

The artist says she likes to think that people are like the fish in her paintings, all part of one consciousness and creating a movement.

“I found out … that fish can be a symbol of our emotions; the ones we need to go through to grow and become stronger, to become who we are,” she said.

Oceanlife Festival runs from Monday, 9 January until Sunday, 15 January. Details at http://www.oceanlifefestival.com