Sensational Shores

Collector's Focus: Coastlines

By John O’Hern

When we think of Atlantic coastal scenes, we think of Maine, the Jersey Shore, Miami—seldom connecting these disparate shores to the continuous eastern coastline of North America, which is over 2,000 miles long.

Descriptions of the 110-foot-high Otter Cliffs in Maine’s Acadia National Park are often described as “one of the tallest headlands north of Rio de Janeiro.” That’s one long coastline.Jones & Terwilliger Galleries, Coastal Cypress, Pt. Lobos (detail), oil on canvas, 30 x 40", by Brian Blood.

Joel Babb’s Otter Cliffs, Mt. Desert Island, Maine (from North) shows the sheer cliffs on a calm day, ready to withstand the buffeting of the surf. At its base are rounded rocks, their edges softened by years of wave action. Babb now lives in Maine, having been born in Georgia, raised in Nebraska and having taught for over 20 years at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He found inspiration in the drawings of the 17th-century French master Claude Lorrain.

“I remember that in my own attempts to render landscape I didn’t get anywhere until I studied Claude drawings—how contours overlap to make masses, which break down into smaller masses. How bands of light and dark are organized to separate levels in space,” Babb says. “The structure of tree foliage is incomprehensible without the organization of clumps which one sees in Claude’s drawings. Once you get this idea of the big clumps have little clumps, and little clumps have smaller clumps, and that the whole thing has a volume in three dimensions you begin to understand how trees look to the mind, not just to the retina.”Sharon Weaver, Golden Inlet, oil with gold leaf, 11 x 14"

Sharon Weaver, Golden Pines, oil with gold leaf, 11 x 14"

Plein air sketches, photographs and memory play a role in the construction of his paintings. He explains, “Photos have the power of collecting everything in an instant, but the qualities of light and shadow are never quite there…the artist’s idea of space is the final controlling element, something that is informed by life, experience, imagination.”

The Pacific coast is as varied as that of the Atlantic. One unique characteristic is the rocky coast of central California and the presence of gnarled cypress trees on the cliffs and above the beaches of the Monterey Peninsula.

Brian Blood was a graphic artist and art director in Boston before moving to Pebble Beach, California. He travels around the peninsula observing the light conditions, making sketches and taking reference photos before returning to his studio to create his impressionist paintings. Primarily a plein air painter, while scouting vistas he says he looks for “strong overlapping shapes and interesting color nuances. I like to lead the viewer into the picture plane.”

He accomplishes this in Coastal Cypress, Pt. Lobos. The cypress trees in the foreground are in sun and shadow above the turquoise water. The distant cliffs are grayed out as painters do to create a perceived distance but also a representation of the misty coastal air that contributes to the atmospheric effect.PoetsArtists, Origin of Consciousness, oil on canvas, 24 x 20", by Hilary McCarthy.

Shima Shanti, Nocturne, encaustic painting with beeswax and fire, 36 x 36"

In this feature dedicated to coastal paintings, collectors will find wide-open oceans, vast beaches or the dunes and craggy coasts. The artists also provide insights on inspirations and techniques.

PoetsArtists, led by Didi Menendez, promotes artists working in various mediums, styles and subjects, such as Hilary McCarthy and Gayle Madeira, who are drawn to the sea.

McCarthy says, “The ocean was here before we were. It is wiser than we are. It doesn’t need us, if anything, we need it. I feel profound reverence for and am in awe of its importance and beauty. The ocean has inspired my oil paintings for a while now.”

For Madeira, the visual aspects of the ocean draw her in. She says, “I am inspired by the intense beauty of nature and, in particular, the ephemeral, constantly changing movement of light playing on water.”PoetsArtists, Storm at Sea, oil on linen panel, 16", by Gayle Madeira.

Vose Galleries, Otter Cliffs, Mt. Desert Island, Maine (from North), oil on linen, 28 x 22", by Joel Babb.

Sharon Weaver received her formal art education at Parsons School of Design in New York City, but it wasn’t until she moved to California that she applied what she learned to landscapes. Her impressionistic style was molded and enriched while competing in plein air events. Recently, Weaver has expanded her creative vision by incorporating gold leaf in her oil paintings. This combination has opened up an entirely different means of expression.

“The idea of using gold leaf was exciting but I had no idea how to introduce it into my landscapes,” she says. “I didn’t want the gold leaf to overpower the image, but instead to enhance my paintings and transport my audience. I developed and refined a method that has grown into an interpretation of the landscape that is all my own.” Shima Shanti, Moon Over Del Dios, encaustic painting with beeswax and fire, 36 x 36"San Diego, California-based artist Shima Shanti works in the encaustic medium, which uses the natural elements of beeswax, pigment and fire. Combining bold and rough-yet-refined texture with satin-smooth finishes that appear both translucent and opaque, her art creates a depth of luminosity that draws the viewer in. Her works portray the liquid imagery and interplay of water and spirit, and they reveal the underlying peace that shapes our natural world. Beyond what appears to be turbulent wind and crashing waves her work unveils the rhythm and flow of water in motion in synergy with nature and spirit. —