DRAWING AND PAINT

The sea calms us, it stirs us to thoughts of adventures, it pervades our imagination with its limitless horizons.  Who would refuse the gift of a cruise on a beautiful, sun-flecked ocean? Even if you live inland from the sea or are perhaps a desert dweller, when you stand before a seascape, you are entranced.  The endless waves, the spackle of the sun on far-flung foam, you are caught up in the painting.  Already you have thought of a home for it, that certain wall where the painting will provide a break from the humdrum routine of life.  Seascape paintings can do that for our souls.

From the perfectly-captured fisherman in Winslow Homer’s “The Gulf Stream” to Marek Wlodarski’s abstract seascapes of mid-20^th century, the sea captures light in ways that other subjects do not.  Light as seen through water, light hitting water and reflecting upon a mysterious seaside cave, what could be more challenging to an artist to portray?  When fashioning seascape paintings, the abstract artist pulls from his palette the muted hues of a dawn sea, the full-out tones of the noontime and the shading into nighttime at purple dusk.  Whoever purchases an abstract seascape can tell at a glance which of these moods of the sea graces the painting.  You will have been glad to have selected such a wide-ranging source of enjoyment.

Why choose a seascape over other genres of paintings?  Much may depend on the personality of the collector and their resources.  A vacation home near the seashore, for example, cries out for a local painter’s rendition of the same shore at calm neap or full-bore tide.  Different seasons, different times of day, all could render a room into an echo of the natural setting just outside the door of the room.  From the viewpoint of a collector in the midsection of the continent, a seascape will be a memory of a treasured childhood trip, a honeymoon, or a desired retirement spot.  A seascape in a physician’s waiting room, for example, soothes a restless spirit as he gazes into the blues and greens and forgets the reason why he is here.  On the practical side, a seascape may entertain a child as he or she waits upon an appointment. 

These descriptions of seascapes would not be complete without its defining feature, the land.  Water runs down waterfalls from cliffs to the sea, a quite rare phenomenon that begs to be the subject of a painting.  Then there is the more common depiction of wave action upon oceanside rocks, little rills running down the rockface as each wave recedes.  Light is caught at different moments each time.  And what of the drifting spray we see on the point of meeting between water and shore?  Abstract art can even suggest this ephemeral part of the seascape world.  We can see why seascapes are favorite subject for any artist.  When you obtain a seascape for yourself, your art collection gains a prized, time-honored genre as exemplified by Homer and Wlodarski.