This Tide is Always...

I was standing on the beach at Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend, WA when I saw this constant movement of the water. I thought it was perfect for this work, so I took a shot of this location. I then digitally made it black and white with grey shades. Because the digital process removed most of the details from the water, I had to hand-paint and highlight the rocks and foam/bubbles with acrylic paints.

Art and image copyright 2009 by Andrew Borloz

Ocean

This "Ocean" picure was painted with acrilic paint on plywood. The sand was
added with gritty medium. Some of the shells were glued on with medium.
Several of the shells, however, were drilled, wired and attached to a chain bracelet which
is hung on tiny hooks. The bracelet can be removed and worn as desired.
How's that for a gift from the sea?

Art and images copyright 2009 by Judi Stack

Gilded Starfish

Gosh I had fun with this!!! I used Arches water color as a base with acrylic wash, an image of a star fish made 3-D with paper clay. Then I gilded over everything with copper colored leaf. Once dry I used pumice powder to remove much of the gilding. I love this look. The top image is a close up of the gilding. In the sunlight it has more of a glow than you can see in the photo.

Fun!

Art and images copyright 2009 by Susie Wolfer

Listening to the Sea on a Distant Shore

For some reason my scanner causes the girl's height to be compressed, so I will post a photo to replace the scan when I have more time. Collage on gessoed board with fluid acrylic, graphite, pen and water soluble crayon. I drew the girl on sketch paper and transferred her to the painting, then painted over the pencil with fluid acrylic.

Art and images copyright 2009 by Jan Harris

Sea of Zippers

Posted for Traci Donahue

Art and images copyright 2009 by Traci Donahue

BEAUTY on the REEF

I call this "Beauty on the Reef".

It is a multi-layered mixed media creation using fabric, yarns, feathers, paper and seashells. I love working with fibers and creating "paintings" by fusing them together in unusual ways.

Art and images copyright 2009 Marylin Huskamp

Lost Coral Reef

Ever since I saw The Institute for Figuring hyperbolic crocheted coral reefs, I've wanted to create one. Here is my mini-8x8 inch recreation of a bleached reef for our sea theme. When a coral reef dies it loses all of its color. This project started to make others aware of the danger of losing coral reefs around the globe. Women from all over the world have crocheted coral reefs and exhibited their creations at major art museums in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Australia and other countries. Here's a close up fo the reef from a side view.


Art and images copyright 2009 Paula McNamee

Gifts of the Sea

I have always enjoyed the act of reading...
curling up in a cozy chair or on the bed,
snuggling beneath a blanket with a good
book in hand, finding myself lost among
the pages, transported to another time or
place through the carefully woven words
of a story.

So you can see how easy it might be,
that a familiar manuscript began as the
foundation for my February Nature
Gathered artwork. A classic piece of
literature filled with wisdom that is still
as meaningful, maybe even more so today,
as it was the very first time I opened the cover.

Gifts from the Sea was merely a passing fancy
or impulse purchase, something that I
had bought off of the discount shelves
of a local bookstore over ten years ago.
I don't know what I really expected from
Mrs. Lindbergh's prose, but I definitely
got more than I bargained for. What the
thin paperback was lacking in girth, it
made up for in content.

I have never been much of one to read and
re-read the same tale twice. And honestly,
I had absolutely no intentions of re-reading
this book when I decided to pull it down from
the shelf, at the end of January. I was just
hoping to maybe, find a passage or two that
might spark in me, a starting point from which
to base this latest piece of art.

But it only took a few sentences to find myself
mesmerized once again by the thoughtful
observations emanating from its pages.

All of a sudden, I had not only re-read the entire
book but I had actually read it twice. It was
inspiration magnified.

Carefully I stitched quotes from the book onto the
canvas, to represent the ocean waves washing
their wisdom upon the sandy shores of my being.



Art and images copyright 2009 Tracie Lyn Huskamp

A little bit of sea in the mountains

My father-in-law left the family a whole lot of STUFF to clean up, trash or give away. I got the shells, so this month's theme was a breeze to create. Sort of...I don't know how may designs I set out on the canvas board before I was satisfied. However, I was missing one thing and it just didn't look right with it. Sand.

I was not going to go buy any or run off to the beach for a handful of it. I did the next best thing. I walked into Harlan's shop and commandeered a sheet of sandpaper. I glued it down, after fabricating a hanging "system", and then hot glued all the shells. This final design was NOT the one I was happy with. Oh no, I had to change it all as I was gluing. My Muse is being fickle this month.

Art and images copyright 2009 Z'anne Bakke