To raise awareness of the beauty of our coastal seabed Dorset Wildlife Trust has teamed up with the Society of Wildlife Artists (SWLA) to offer one of their members the chance to learn to dive in order to interpret this much under-represented habitat.

The power of art to inspire and to alter public opinion is well known, but could a new school of underwater wildlife artists help overcome the misguided belief that the seabed around the UK is featureless, gloomy and uninteresting?

On the understanding that it would be easier to teach an artist to dive than to teach a diver to paint, Dorset Wildlife Trust offered an award through the SWLA to teach one of their members to dive.

The first year's winner is Kim Atkinson, a leading member of the SWLA, who trained at the Royal College of Art and is well known for her plein air work in mixed media. The award should prove an exciting challenge for Kim and her resulting works will be shown at the SWLA's annual exhibition which runs from 26th September to 7th October at the Mall Galleries in London. They will also be exhibited at Dorset Wildlife Trust’s Fine Foundation Marine Centre at Kimmeridge Bay and other sites around Dorset.

Kim will train to dive in Anglesey before coming down to Dorset over the summer to try ‘sketching’ beneath the waves. She will be adopted by the Isle of Purbeck Sub Aqua Club and taken to some favourite haunts. She is excited by the prospect – “despite my undeniable nerves, I do feel it’s the most fantastic and generous opportunity to do something really fascinating.”

Kim could learn from pre-SCUBA attempts at painting on the seabed, using oil paints on waterproofed canvas, while wearing a modified milk churn. They soon discovered the biggest problem was the wooden brushes floating way! Diving gear has come on leaps and bounds since then, but the brushes and paints haven’t changed much.

Dorset Wildlife Trust’s Marine Officer, Peter Tinsley, said “Dorset is blessed with some incredible underwater habitats hidden beneath the waves, that are under increasing threat from man’s activities. We are hopeful that this project will raise awareness of these concealed treasures and that more people will want to protect them for the future.”