Ellsworth American
Under the sea: The art of seaweed on display at Blue Hill Co-op for month of May
By Jennifer Osborn Apr 28, 2025
Arts & Living
BLUE HILL — Seaweed has been inspiring artists for an age and then some, from Shibata Zeshin in 1800’s Tokyo to John Singer Sargent in 1920’s Boston.
And now, a show of art inspired by the various seaweeds along the Maine coast will occupy the Blue Hill Co-op Cafe during May.
“Floating Filaments: Seaweed” will be on display from May 1 to 31 with an artists’ reception open to the public on Sunday, May 4, at 3 p.m.
“The show is inspired by the seaweeds that are a little noticed but important component of our coastal shores, attracting the eye of both artist and scientist,” said David Porter of Brooklin.
The work of 15 artists in the show will include a wide range of media: oil, watercolor, photography, collage, pressed seaweed, fiber art, cyanotypes and jewelry.
“In addition to the Co-op, the exhibit is sponsored by the Blue Hill Peninsula Rockweed Forum (rockweedforest.org), a voluntary organization promoting education about intertidal rockweed and its conservation,” said Porter, who is a professor emeritus at University of Georgia’s Department of Plant Biology. “Rockweed is a critical habitat for the sheltering and nurturing of hundreds of marine creatures including — what is little known — the larval and juvenile stages of most of our commercial fish and shellfish species.
“It is the hope of the Rockweed Forum that this seaweed art show will draw attention to the intertidal habitat and the numerous seaweeds that are an integral part of our Maine coast and have attracted artists, scientists, fishermen and the public for hundreds of years,” Porter said.
The artists include Krisanne Baker, Jordan Chalfant, Galen Davis, Pamela Elias, Kate Emlen, Lisa Tyson Ennis, Michele Gower, Christine Guinness, Jeannet Leendertse, Lyn Mayewski, Ron Miriello, Sarah Scamperle, Marcia Stremlau and Tanya Washburn.
Here are statements from some of the participating artists:
Jordan Chalfant: Pressing seaweed is a skill at the crossroads of art and science. The process involves floating real seaweed over paper in a shallow tray of water in order to spread the filamentous algae and emulate their underwater habit, highlighting the diversity of colors and forms. After carefully removing the arrangement on paper, it must remain tightly secured in a plant press for 1-2 weeks before revealing the final product. Chalfant’s work can be viewed on Instagram and Facebook: @seaweedsofmaine
Kate Emlen: For this monotype I took an impression of some Eggemoggin rockweed. Ooops! I misjudged its wetness factor. Most of it splurted out all over the place leaving some beautiful marks and lots of slop. So, I went back in with gouache to enhance the final image. kateemlen.com
Krisanne Baker: Being underwater is a form of meditation and wonder for me. Snorkeling the cold Maine waters in the summer provides a great deal of inspiration. Most often I paint these underwater habitats directly after coming out of the water while the visions are still fresh in my mind. krisannebaker.com
Galen Davis: In this painting, I wanted to combine the clarity of the overwater experience of light, air and horizon line with the dreamlike underwater experience of undulating seaweed, muted light and color. I’ve been inspired by scientists Allison Snow and Peter Curtis of Blue Hill Peninsula Rockweed Forum to create more artwork featuring seaweed and promoting conservation. galendavisgallery.com
Jeannet Leendertse: I grew up on the Dutch shore. Now my fiber work responds to the rugged coast of Maine, where I find sculptural form in the landscape and its creatures. Exploring the concept of belonging, I develop work that feels at home in this marine environment. My current medium is rockweed (Ascophyllum nodosum), which I coil and stitch using waxed linen. My aim is to show the beauty of this ancient algae, while drawing attention to its environmental value. jeannetleendertse.com
Christine Guinness: I love making pictures of everything in the sea. These images of rockweed are the convergence of intention and the unplanned magic that happens while I am pressing the shutter. There are so many elements I cannot control, so I try to be open and let go. christineguinness.com
Lyn Mayewski: “Beach Walk” is a combination of wet-felted and needle-felted wool. The background is wet-felted using natural and dyed Corriedale wool. The seaweed, shells and stones are needle-felted from the same type of wool and attached to the background by thread.
Ron Miriello: Ron Miriello is an artist and designer working in San Diego and Siena. The discovery of an 1876 seaweed scrapbook from Searsport inspired Miriello to create an extensive series of layered abstracts called “Found Adrift,” all based on original specimens from the personal scrapbook.
“The star of this work is nature itself,” said Miriello. “I’m using artistry to slow the viewer down enough to appreciate the majesty of nature. It’s particularly satisfying to see pieces of ‘Found Adrift’ now returning home to Maine.” The complete exhibition and story of Maine seaweed travels to Italy and France later in 2025. miriellostudio.com
Marcia Stremlau: Creating the pieces for the seaweed exhibit was a natural extension of my process: Walking along the shore collecting treasures that the tide delivers, returning to my studio to observe and paint their flowing shapes and intense colors. A creative meditation. marciastremlau.com
Lisa Tyson Ennis: I am exploring the beauty of seaweeds with the cyanotype process. I paint large pieces of watercolor canvas with several coats of light-sensitive cyanotype emulsion in my darkroom. Then with the last layer of emulsion still wet, I lay the chosen seaweeds onto the canvas, sandwich the seaweed with heavy glass to weigh it down and carry the large (dripping) canvas outside. The UV light from the sun will expose the cyanotype through and around the seaweed. I leave it outside for many hours, sometimes days, allowing all of the elements time to work their magic. Sunlight, humidity, temperature, wind, time and the chemicals released from the seaweeds themselves all impact the final image.
Seaweeds are so mysterious. They belong to an underworld that we rarely witness and will never belong to — wild, untended gardens in the sea. Although they resemble land plants, they are entirely different beings. Seaweeds are also ancient — fossil studies have revealed them to be over one billion years old and responsible in large part for the creation of our atmosphere. lisatysonennis.com
Tanya Washburn: The muted colors of the oceanside are my favorite palette — blues, silver/grays, greens … . Those colors, the textural variation of the beach and the scent of exposed seaweed in the sun were easy for me to conjure from my wood-heated home in the dead of winter when I brought this work to life. The effects in this piece were achieved by several processes including saltwater etching and various surface embellishing techniques. I gave in and let the creative process “flow” resulting in this multidimensional scene. tanyawashburn75@gmail.com
Jennifer Osborn
News Reporter