Female artists’ paintings that make you want straight to the sea

Contemporary marine artists and their ımpressive works

16 Jul 2024
Photo: Instagram / Zarialynn
Photo: Instagram / Zarialynn

Marine landscapes are a unique form of art. It is impossible to paint a moving sea without a vivid imagination. The movement of natural elements like lightning, strong winds, and splashing waves is difficult to capture with a brush. However, if an artist manages to convey their liveliness on canvas with paints, it is a testament to their skill.

The sea, a living embodiment of the universe, provides an inexhaustible source of inspiration. The dynamic nature of marine environments presents challenges in depicting nature but also offers unlimited opportunities for creativity and improvisation.

Katie Wyatt 

Nowadays, several contemporary female artists draw inspiration from marine environments, creating breathtaking seascapes. One of them is Katie Wyatt.

Bursting onto the art scene like a tsunami, Australian artist Katie Wyatt creates breathtaking compositions combining color and form. Specializing in landscapes and still lifes, she draws inspiration from the vast Australian landscapes. Her works, painted with a palette knife in the impasto technique (where paints are applied thickly on the canvas), capture the energy and beauty of open spaces. Wyatt paints based on her own experiences and memories.

Katie’s deep connection to the ocean is evident in her numerous marine paintings. Growing up with three sisters and parents who loved traveling by caravan through South Australia, she often visited the beach. Many of her works are not based on specific locations but resemble a visual diary, painted from memory and the feelings she experiences by the sea.

Originally a portrait artist, Katie was inspired to recreate her vision of the Australian landscape after traveling around the country.

Wyatt pushes the boundaries of acrylic paints by dripping and layering them on the canvas until the whole story is told.

Using texture, she explores form and line, allowing shapes to emerge from the thick, generous application of paint. Light reflects off and highlights the sculptural effects created by the textured finish. The final varnish stage smooths the surface and enhances the color saturation of the work.

 

Jenny Berry

Jenny Berry works in the genre of marine landscapes. As an avid diver, many of Jenny Berry’s works are inspired by photographs she takes during underwater dives. Her love for the ocean and the underwater world is evident in all her paintings. Fascinated by the unique marine environment, she uses acrylic paints to convey the transparency of water and create bold opaque layers. Her works range from large canvases depicting reef life scenes in a relatively loose style to detailed works with a realistic approach.

Jenny has always painted marine life, and in 2018, she decided to dedicate her life to art. Since then, having sold many works to collectors across Australia and abroad, she has regularly exhibited her works, enjoying sharing her art with others. Her higher education in graphic design allows Jenny to create complex compositions using a palette of complementary and harmonious shades.

Jenny strives to create pieces of art that fill people’s homes with a sense of peace and beauty. Her works remind people of the ocean, vacations, summer, swimming, boating, fishing, and all the happiness these activities bring. By capturing the beauty and tranquility hidden in the ocean’s depths, the artist draws attention to preserving our oceans and coral reefs.

Zaria Forman

Known for her flawless naturalistic drawings, Zaria Forman finds inspiration in remote and ecologically vulnerable landscapes. Water is a central element in her works. Shimmering icebergs, turbulent Arctic waters, and tropical waves crashing against rocky cliffs showcase the beauty and majesty of water.

Her marine landscapes, primarily drawn with ordinary pastels, captivate with their incredible, almost brutal beauty.

Forman has traveled extensively through Greenland, Antarctica, and the Maldives, gathering material for her drawings and raising awareness about climate change.

Her works feature glaciers and frigid waves crashing against snowy shores. It is hard to find another artist who can depict ice so perfectly and realistically. Critics often refer to her as the queen of icebergs.

Zaria Forman’s inspiration for her drawings began in early childhood when she traveled with her family to some of the world’s most remote landscapes.

In August 2012, Forman led the “Chasing Light” expedition along the northwest coast of Greenland, retracing American artist William Bradford’s 1869 journey and documenting the rapidly changing Arctic landscape.

Zaria Forman has visited the most remote corners of the Earth to capture the grandeur of icebergs in photographs. She creates large-scale drawings so realistic and colorful that one might expect a freezing effect when touching them.

16 Jul 2024
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