Beach Art: A Valentine to the Ocean
February 14, 2013
Lucia Pec is a German-born nature guide and beach artist living in the Bohemian Forest, or Šumava, in the Czech Republic. A marine and forest ecologist by training, Pec’s main focus is to “bring across the value of wild nature to everybody.”
Each winter she and her family visit Portugal, where Pec fell in love with doing beach art:
Since a couple of winters I come for a break to the magnificent wild beaches of the western Algarve in Portugal. First I was shocked by the amount of rubbish that piles up on almost all beaches. But being a beach treasure seeker all my life, soon all the little and big things stranded ashore started to inspire me. So I started to turn some pieces of waste into very short-lasting art objects, which in that composition only outlast in my pictures. I take the rubbish from my projects and more with me and recycle it or keep it for some projects to come. With my beach art projects I try to show both the waste problem on our planet and also the hidden beauty and life that we can find even in trash.
Although Pec’s beach art is ephemeral, it lives on in these photos. Send the ocean a Valentine today by making some of your own beach art!
For more on Lucia Pec’s work, visit her German language website.
