In my artwork I’m attracted to images that contrast nature vs. human-made elements, as well as contrasts of colors and textures. This painting features a 4 x 4 inch post of pressure-treated wood that has probably escaped from a wharf, and is now fighting a losing battle against nature in a rocky intertidal zone. Its rotting surface has created multiple contrasts of textures, colors, and other elements. The wood is now home to a multitude of periwinkle sea snails or winkles (Littorina littorea) that are clinging to its surface. To the left, jutting out of a split in the post, is a cluster of golden spindles fungus (Clavulinopsis fusiformis), a jelly fungus that thrives on decaying hardwood. To the right is a multicolored (yellow, orange, blue, purple, and green) mass of seaweed, despite its name being common brown seaweed (Fucus vesiculosus). This seaweed is also called bladderwrack or sea grapes to acknowledge the air-filled bladders or spheres that keep it afloat. When drying out on a shoreline like this, the seaweed provides a canopy that protects other smaller organisms.

My thanks to Laura Genge who took the reference photo. I previously painted “Rest in Pieces” in 2020 based on one of her photos, and I held on to this photo until it called out to me to be painted.

People ask me how and why I choose to paint what I do. It’s hard to describe. I paint what I like from images that intrigue me, and usually without considering whether someone would ever want to buy it. Sometimes an image grabs me right away and it becomes the very next thing I paint. I was intrigued by this image when I first saw it, but it was only recently that it came to the forefront as something that I simply had to paint. The complexity of the seaweed created its own challenges for me to paint.