GET OUT AND TRY……Strand Line Art

When you are next walking along the beach why not take a look at the strand line and turn your finds into art? It’s amazing what some artists are doing with the litter they find on beaches. Not only are they doing something fun and useful with all the litter we have become so used to seeing, but they are cleaning the beaches at the same time and it is hoped their work will help to put the message across about the levels of rubbish which are littering our beaches. One such artist Steve McPherson collects litter and turns it into colourful pictures.

Words and photos by Steve McPherson

As a child I loved the idea of treasure hunting during the school holidays and weekends; with miles of beaches to wander on, play turned into hunts for lost treasures! At that time the smugglers caves in the white chalk cliffs had yet to be filled by our worried council and amongst them were abandoned rusting carsand items uncovered by winter cliff falls.

One day a hole in the chalk reef would reveal a musket ball, another day winter storms would raise ghostly gas masks from a 1940's bomber stuck in the sands out in the depths. Iron pyrite stained the chalk red, and flints were Stone Age axes, fossils and fire making tools. Old pottery, pipes and glass bottle tops were collected for their interest, and out of what are probably thousands of searches, on only three occasions did I ever find jewellery, nothing of real value but true treasure to this child hunter.

My obsession to collect has never ceased - but as an adult and an artist, the subject matter has. I started to question what I would choose to pick up from the thousands of possibilities of litter and rubbish that was churned up every day. I valued some more than others, and then made a conscious decision not to. This meant that now I would have to take a small bag to the beach each time I went - eventually the small bag turned into a carrier bag - and now I take a bucket. Alas, I could fill several buckets on each trip with plastic and rubbish, but my primary aim is to collect and make art, and the ecological impact I have on the beach is secondary, but still important.

I now collect all types of marine plastic; toys, souvenirs, bottle tops, ice cream spoons, chip forks, broken pieces and whole objects, floats from the fishing industry, tags and ties, plastic money, beads, hair grips, clothes pegs, the list goes on. I do not filter out the objects that I feel are useless as all are actually the opposite.

I always wash the items at home, and leave them to soak in fresh water, as you have no idea what sits on the objects you collect, so you have to be careful of oil, and other pollutants. I never pick up unidentifiable canisters as you don’t know what could be in them. It’s always best to be prepared - gloves - bags - and knowledge of the tide.

When making a piece of art any item can work, it depends on the subject matter. If there is no subject matter and the colour and design are all important then I use what fits to acquire the desired effect; you are then only limited by the objects you collect not by your imagination.

Marine plastic and beach litter are ugly things and damaging to the fragile ecosystems of both sea and coast. Finding and using them as a material in art is exciting, satisfying and good for both artist and environment!

Steve McPherson is an artist and lecturer who lives and works on the north coast of Kent, England.

Autumn and winter are particularly good times to go beach combing as the fierce storms often throw material up on the beaches which have been at sea for a long time-and a lot more of it than during the summer time. So why not get down to your local beach and get creating. We will be setting up a gallery on the EGCP website, so send in photos of your work and we will put them online for everyone to see.