Daniel Opitz

When the humpback whales return from their feeding grounds in Alaska to the warm waters off Maui/Hawaii in November, Daniel Opitz and his underwater camera are there to document their tracks. The work of this marine biologist and nature filmmaker is dedicated to the “inner space” of our planet. His visually stunning films create an entry to the fascinating world of whales and dolphins in the depths of the Pacific Ocean.

His production company OCEAN MIND has already made a clutch of international award-winning television films. Daniel Opitz is currently engaged on the production of the world´s first surround- 3D movie that will enable virtual encounters with the behavior, culture and communication of whales and dolphins – life in underwater worlds.

That one of OUBEYs paintings would at some point encounter a person whose professional life and all-consuming interest is placed at the service of whales and dolphins has long been clear to me. Because it wasn’t just the complexity of waves, whirls and maelstroms in the ever changing dynamics of moving waters that excited OUBEYs enthusiasm – he was also greatly intrigued by underwater worlds with their fascinating wealth of creations and creatures among which whales and dolphins take a preeminent place.

OUBEY always felt a great affinity with the book “Mind in the Waters” written in celebration of the consciousness of whales and dolphins. This book by the legendary pioneer Joan McIntyre published in German translation in 1984 became a companion for him which corroborated his own intuitive thought. On 24 May 2013 when I set up OUBEYs Blue Painting in the room of Daniel Opitz’s house he calls his “navigation bridge”, it was precisely this book – the original first edition in English – that I found lying on the table. Yet another crossing of kindred minds in the work with OUBEYs legacy.

Even if the actual encounter never touched on the subject of whales and dolphins, for me this renewed encounter with Joan McIntyre´s book was a moment of certainty that with this painting by OUBEY I had really come to the “right” person at the “right” place.