Project: Gyotaku: Fish Printing

Beaches equal the sea and the sea equals fish. Gyotaku is the traditional art of fish printing. The method was originally used by Japanese fisherman to record their catch. It's also a great project to do with kids. Gio and Eamon love it and often ask to do it. 

Prints: Sea Creatures: The Beach

Seahorse, foam print, copyright Nina Leung, 2014

I love doing these little foam prints. They're so simple and easy to do. I'll have to do a tutorial sometime and have my kids do it as they always turn out looking great. Sea creatures make such a great subject since they can be shaped or designed in so many different ways. Maybe it's their simplicity that makes the design so much fun and easy to adapt.

Octopus,  foam print, copyright Nina Leung, 2014

Cute Little Octopus,  foam print, copyright Nina Leung, 2014

Links: The Beach

Eamon and Gio on a typical day at Muir Beach. Cold!

How to bring the beach to your home.

To drink at a beach party.

A dreamy beach holiday.

My favorite beach movie.

Great beach-y read.

Sit outside and enjoy flipping through this and then this.

Perfect to take along to the beach.

Wear this to the beach, but in the San Francisco Bay Area it would more likely be this.

Paintings: Shells: The Beach

Bright Shells, watercolor, copyright Nina Leung, 2014

Iterations, watercolor, copyright Nina Leung, 2014

Watery Conch, watercolor, copyright Nina Leung, 2014

Research: The Beach

Continuing with the beach theme, I've found a few books to help consume me with images and words about the beach. I've been looking at Picasso: Bathers which is a wonderful tome full of Picasso's paintings of the beach. Most exciting are the paintings he did when hiding his affair with Marie-Therese. Noa Noa is a journal written by Paul Gaugin while visiting the islands of Tahiti. It's a fascinating look into a Frenchman's view of island life over a hundred years ago. A great daydreaming books is Seaside Style from Taschen. I like imagining myself in all of these rooms. And, one of my favorite books in the world, A Cabinet of Curiosities with lots of great illustrations of seashells. I can't get enough!

The Beach Paintings

Dotted Starfish, watercolor, copyright Nina Leung, 2014

 I didn't realize how much I was going to love this theme. The beach has so many great shapes, colors, objects, animals, etc. I'm overcome with ideas. This is the first of a batch of sea related paintings and drawings. There will be more!

Pink Jelly, watercolor, copyright Nina Leung, 2014

Clownfish, watercolor, copyright Nina Leung, 2014

Dark Jelly, watercolor, copyright Nina Leung, 2014

The Beach: Italy

On the Cinque Terre Trail

Continuing with the summer beach inspiration with some pictures of Italian beaches. They are so beautiful they deserve their own post.

Monterosso, Italy

View from Cinque Terre Trail

View of Amalfi Coast

View of Minori, Italy

View of Capo d'Orso

The Beach: U.S

My sister Teresa sketching atop the mountains above Big Sur.

With summer upon us I'm feeling the need for inspiration from the beach. Rocks, sand, wind, fog, cliffs, seabirds, tide pools, and seashells. The mood of the beach, the cultural history, the color, the beauty. 

Julia Pfeiffer at Big Sur

Julia Pfeiffer at Big Sur

The beach at Carmel, CA

California's Lost Coast

The beach at Charleston, NC

The beach at Savannah, GA

The beach at Aquinnah Cliffs, Martha's Vineyard

Picasso's Nude on a Beach

Ipad rendering of Picasso's Nude on a Beach

It's June and Summer is finally here! Picasso's beach paintings fit the Summer mood perfectly. The viewer can feel the hot sand, the cool water, and the playfulness of Picasso's lines. Every painting is fun and feels like a vacation.

The series of beach paintings I love most are those picturing the beginning of Picasso's love affair with Marie-Therese Walter. She was only 17 years old and Picasso was 46 and married with children. The age difference is startling, but Picasso must have been magnetic, considering his many love affairs. They met on the beach and Picasso was instantly enthralled. They had a secret love affair, there on the beach, hiding away from his wife Olga. This painting in particular shows how this secret became his work. Many of the paintings are quite erotic.

Picasso obviously loved the beach. He spent a lot of time in the South of France with his family and his many lovers. It all comes out in his work. The beach was obviously a great inspiration to him.