Written by “In every outthrust headland, in every curving beach, in every grain of sand there is the story of the earth.”
Rachel Carson
Beaches draw crowds for a variety of reasons – but in an artist’s eye they possess a unique beauty. The ever-changing interplay of sunlight, clouds, and water provides a dynamic and captivating landscape. From their sweeping vistas, to the smallest grain of sand, they have inspired art for centuries.
The boundary between the land and the vast expanse of the sea is fluid and ephemeral. There, the interaction between waves and sand and stone briefly creates intricate patterns, only for them to be washed clean by the next tide.
Across the littoral zone that hugs every coast, the hungry sea gnaws at the edges of the landscape, engulfing the discarded, sweeping away the unwanted, and devouring the bones of countries and continents. But it returns as much as it takes away. When the tide shifts, it can leave behind piles of stone and shell ground into glittering sand, heaps of fluttering seaweed – and all the other the flotsam that gathers at the water’s edge, smoothed and polished by the ocean’s churn.
A beach reflects all the moods of the ocean – from calm, serene quiet, through wild and windy days, to the raging storm. Each change in weather, like each shift in the tide, shapes the coast and leaves its marks on the sand.
Where cliffs tumble, rocks remain, littering beaches with the bones of the earth. In among them can lurk the smallest of ecosystems, tiny rock pools teeming with life. Crabs and tiny fish feast on equally tiny forests, and mussels and anemones cling to jagged surfaces, sifting the seawater for every fragment of food.
Away from the boundaries between land and ocean, nature works to reclaim the beach, using the spaces abandoned by the sea. Sand dunes, piled high by rising tide and capricious winds, shelter grass and other vegetation.
Step back – and the endless movement of waves create visual rhythms, painting the sand with complex patterns.
The interactions of sand and sea are an endless inspiration for artist and embroiderer alike. Whether your interest lies in the patterns of stone on a beach, the ever-changing ripples in the sand, the life in tiny rock pools, the tumble of pebbles, the shifting shape of sand dunes, or just the impact of a beach as a beautiful landscape, you can find something to intrigue, to inspire – and to stitch!
…down beyond the low untrodden strand,
From ‘Seaside’ by Rupert Brooke
There curves and glimmers outward to the unknown
The old unquiet ocean.
All the shade
Is rife with magic and movement.
Photographs by Amanda Smith and Penny Hill