The story behind the paintings
Bloop was a very small octopus.
A VERY small octopus.
About the size of a golf ball.
But Bloop had a VERY big idea.
“I’m going to make a choir!” he said.
Unfortunately, Bloop had never made a choir before.
He climbed onto his favourite rock, lifted one tiny tentacle and shouted,
“BLOOP!”
Nothing happened.
So he tried again.
“BLOOOOP!”
A crab popped up from behind a rock.
“Was that singing?” asked Crabby.
“Yes,” said Bloop proudly.
Crabby thought about this.
Then he went,
“CLACK! CLACK!”
“Oh!” said Bloop. “You can be percussion.”
Crabby had no idea what percussion was.
But he liked clacking.
So he joined the choir.
Next came the scallops.
They opened their shells.
CLAP!
They closed their shells.
CLAP!
They opened them again.
CLAP! CLAP! CLAP!
“Wonderful!” cried Bloop.
The scallops blinked their bright blue eyes.
They looked very pleased with themselves.
Then a seahorse floated past.
“Can you sing?” asked Bloop.
The seahorse took a very deep breath.
“Peeeeeeeeep!”
Everybody stared.
“That was… quite high,” said Bloop.
The seahorse bowed.
Then two jellyfish drifted over.
“Can you sing?” Bloop called.
The jellyfish said nothing.
They just went…
Wibble.
Wobble.
Wibble.
Wobble.
Bloop nodded seriously.
“Excellent dancing.”
The jellyfish had not meant to dance.
But they joined anyway.
Then Ray swooped through the water.
WHOOSH!
“Ray!” shouted Bloop. “Would you like to sing?”
Ray opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
He tried again.
Still nothing.
So Ray flapped his enormous wings.
WHOOSH… WHOOSH…
Bloop clapped all eight tentacles.
“You can be the wind section!”
Ray had no idea what that meant either.
But everybody seemed happy.
High above them, Turtle was swimming very slowly.
Very.
Very.
Slowly.
“Turtle!” shouted Bloop. “We need a bass singer!”
Turtle looked down.
“Boooooooooooooo.”
The whole reef wobbled.
The scallops clapped.
Crabby fell off his rock.
The jellyfish wibbled even harder.
Bloop nearly rolled into the deep water.
“PERFECT!” he cried.
Then the little fish arrived.
Hundreds of them.
“Can you sing?” Bloop asked.
The fish all opened their mouths.
“Blub blub blub blub blub blub blub!”
Bloop blinked.
“That is a lot of blubbing.”
The fish went round and round and round…
until one bumped into another…
who bumped into another…
who bumped into Crabby.
CLACK!
Everybody stopped.
Bloop climbed back onto his rock.
He raised one tiny tentacle.
The whole ocean waited.
Then Bloop sang:
Bloop, bloop, sing with me,
Bloop, bloop, under the sea!
Clap little scallop, sway little Ray,
Swim little turtle, come out and play!
The scallops went CLAP!
Crabby went CLACK!
Ray went WHOOSH!
Turtle went BOOOOOOO!
The fish went BLUB BLUB BLUB!
The jellyfish went…
Wibble.
Wobble.
And the seahorse went…
“PEEEEEEEEP!”
Everyone stopped.
Bloop looked at the seahorse.
The seahorse looked at Bloop.
Then everybody burst out laughing.
And from that day on, whenever bubbles floated up through the reef, if you looked very carefully…
some of them were shaped like musical notes.
Because somewhere below,
a tiny blue octopus was still conducting the silliest choir in the sea.
BLOOP BLOOP. 🫧🫧
