Gazing upon the boundless waters of the blue ocean, it always prompts endless imagination and ideas. At the beginning of the year in 2024, students from the Vancouver Art for Earth Environmental Art Youth Club embarked on a sketching journey at the Vancouver Aquarium, equipped with sketchbooks and pens. The Vancouver Aquarium is Canada’s largest aquarium, home to 65,000 marine animals. It saves 150 endangered aquatic species each year and conducts groundbreaking marine research and amazing conservation efforts. The club’s students saw various marine organisms, learned about marine biology, and mastered on-site marine animal sketching skills. They also learned that protecting aquatic animals not only contributes to maintaining ecological balance and biodiversity but also affects human food security, economic development, and the overall health of the Earth’s ecosystems. The students hope to understand the severe effects of climate change on marine organisms and the marine environment through their pens and sketching works, advocating for the protection of marine species and the environment in order to reduce the detrimental effects of climate change on marine life and the environment. 

The club held on-site classroom teaching and sketching exercises, with two young teachers, Jason Fu and Sherry Gao, demonstrating basic drawing techniques of marine animals and guiding the children in sketching. The club also invited two special guests—veteran artists and educators, Andy Luo and Fiona Li —to the scene.Andy Luo led a group of eager students into the vibrant world of creative oceans, imparting profound three-dimensional dynamic drawing techniques, while Fiona Li patiently guided the young students in creating lively and vivid artworks. The teachers’ eyes were filled with passion and love as if each canvas were an extension of their souls. The students listened attentively, sitting earnestly at their respective desks or by the glass windows, holding their brushes, eager to capture those adorable and charming marine creatures. They truly wished for them to roam care freely in the blue ocean forever, without suffering from the destruction of the marine environment or leaving their homes.