Pacita Abad debuted her Underwater Wilderness series in 1986 following her newfound love of scuba diving and the natural beauty she found underwater. “You cannot beat nature—[it is] fantastic when it comes to colors and quite unusual when it comes to shape and texture,” the artist wrote in her journal in 1985. To capture the variety of colors and textures, she utilized her famous “trapunto” quilted canvases — after padding and stitching a canvas, Abad then painted and embellished the surface with buttons, sequins, mirrors, thread, and yarn. Orange-striped fish II (2000) is a departure from the expansive seascapes made earlier in Abad's career, appearing almost spare in its composition. A striped tropical fish becomes Abad’s sole subject, which she obsessively depicts in a series of similarly composed paintings, choosing different combinations of colors and textures each time. In Orange-striped fish II, Abad opts for a rhythmic, impressionistic background against which the fish — adorned with sequins and a button eye — presides in the center of the canvas. Stitched thread throughout the canvas adds to the painting’s texture, appearing almost like confetti around the marine creature.