Illustrator and graphic designer Sakke Yrjölä has for the past decade focused on his great passion: fish. In his work Suomen Kalat (Fish of Finland), Yrjölä presented detailed watercolour paintings of all 71 species of fish living in Finnish waters. The texts were written by Hannu Lehtonen, Professor of Fisheries Science at the University of Helsinki, and Kari Nyberg, teacher of fish and fisheries biology.
Now he is working on his next major work, Pohjolan kalat (Fish of the Scandinavia). The exhibition at Natural History Museum will feature 40 illustration originals from the forthcoming book: hand-painted species-identification images of North-east Atlantic and Arctic Ocean fish species. Among the species that have been painted are the strange Rabbit fish, the rainbow-coloured Mackerel, Roughhead grenadier from the dark ocean depths and many other interesting species. In addition to the technically masterful print, what makes Yrjölä’s project special is that the illustrator has been there in person to capture and document the species. This is because the colours of the fish start to change as soon as they are taken out of the water, which is why it is important for the photographer to capture the catch fresh, scale by scale. ”Hunting” fish in the areas where they occur also provides important information on the ecology of the species.
Sakke Yrjölä’s fish illustrations are both functional species identification images that meet the needs of fishermen and artistic illustrations that showcase the endless wonder and diversity of endangered marine life.