What are your feelings about sand, salt, hot sun, cool water and cawing seagulls?

I love them all. I have always felt completely at home on the beach. Childhood beaches in New Jersey. Adult beaches in Florida. I love them all.

I created two beach memory works over a year ago for entry in a regional art quilt exhibit, “Floridian Flavors.’ I just got my quilts back from the final exhibiting venue. I unpacked them and put them on the storage shelf. But, first, I took some time to look at them again, to see what I could see.

Each of these quilts depicts a beach scene, but they are actually depictions of memory.

Two Orange Creamsicles, Please is an image of nostalgia. To reach the memory, we look off into the distance.

Though it is rendered in a representational way, it is not “real” in the way a photograph is real. I simplified the scene, leaving out elements that would actually have been there. I intensified the colors of the truck shadow. I intensified the sky.

The focal point is the large truck in the foreground..

But the work is actually about the two women walking away from us, towards the sky while – we presume – they are eating ice cream bars. The intimacy of their stroll together suggests to me that they are old friends, perhaps sisters. 

I used a loose gestural drawing of these figures to give them life.

I liked creating this composition with the strong horizon line. Of course, that’s a strong visual characteristic of being at the beach. But, here in the visual plane, it offers a chance for me to have an element very clearly in the closest part of the foreground while the characters in the story moving up and away from that place.

Classic is also a beach scene, and a memory, but a completely different method of involving the viewer in the scene. The memory is right up at the front of the picture plane.

The main character is depicted in a close-up. This image was based on a picture from a family scrapbook. I love the confidence of the woman in her bathing suit. I love the ease of just enjoying that coke straight from the bottle. (I think I am drawn to these details because the women on my side of the family were not like that at all. Rarely comfortable in their own bodies at the beach. Never drank soda from a bottle.)

I wanted the fact that this is a memory from a scrapbook to be an obvious part of the composition. I used the photo frame as a frame for the woman.

But then – to play a bit with the realities being depicted, I have allowed her to extend outside of the photo. Her legs have made it into the actual ocean foam. Her head extends beyond the photo frame.

So she is both in the photo and at the actual beach. The actual beach is in the background, but has entered into the photo.

Unlike the loose drawing of the two women in Creamsicles, this one is more detailed. I muted the color in the character, to suggest an old black and white photo. All the deep color is in the depiction of the beach elements.

Now, this memory cycle is complete. I drew from real beach memories to create. I re-experienced the scenes as I was working on them. Now, looking at the process of creating several years after the actual quilt creation, I remember the artmaking of it.

My hope will be for these works to find a home (perhaps a wall in a beach home?) where they can also conjure memories of sand and salt and sky in those who look on the scenes.

If you are interested in learning more about these works, they are on my website HERE:
Two Orange Creamsicles, Please
Classic

Finally, just a note for all of t hose who have been nice enough to ask: The studio tour last weekend was fabulous. HUNDREDS of visitors. Wonderful art conversations. Good sales. I was so happy that people were interested in being out and about on an art adventure. To readers who showed up… THANK YOU!

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

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