The Driftweed Artist

Gemila is a Broadstairs-based artist originally from London but with close family ties to Thanet.A love of nature and the coast encouraged Gemila to relocate her young family to Broadstairs ten years ago. However, it was on family holidays to Cornwall where she originally discovered the almost forgotten Victorian art of seaweed pressing, a practice traditionally attributed to female hobbyists.With a demanding career and family life, Gemila was looking for a creative outlet and ‘Seaweeding’ became the perfect pastime. Not only is it a very mindful process but it creates the perfect opportunity to really slow down, look closely and truly experience nature.With sustainability at the heart of her practice, Gemila forages on Thanet beaches at low tide in all weathers, collecting small amounts of ‘driftweed’ (pieces of seaweed that have become detached from their rocky holdfast and are floating freely in the shallows or washed up onto the beach). She takes these specimens back home to begin the drying process in her hand made wooden presses before transforming them into delicate works of art. The process is slow but exciting because you can never predict how each pressing will turn out.As Gemila’s motivation is to create art as opposed to scientific study, specimens are selected based on their aesthetic potential. However, as with the Victorian pressers of the past, she also enjoys the research process of identifying the seaweed by name and recording the location and date on which it was found.Gemila’s seaweed art holds another fascinating element in that it changes over time. Seaweed, when exposed to natural light will change colour and part of the joy of owning your own real pressed seaweed art is watching the colours transform. It really is living art.Why seaweed?Seaweeds are not plants, they have no roots. They are a form of marine algae which make up the forests of the sea and produce about 70% of Earth’s oxygen. They provide both shelter and food to thousands of marine animals but their importance extends to us as well. They provide a habitat for the fish we catch; we use them in food, cosmetics, and medicines, and they protect our coasts by reducing wave and storm damage.The British Isles is globally important for seaweed diversity, being home to more than 650 species of marine algae. Unfortunately, seaweeds are not as popular as flowers, butterflies, or birds, so fewer people make observations of them. Seaweeds flourish in warm, nutrient rich seas where the sunlight penetrates the surface making our chalk reefs ideal growing grounds for a huge diversity of species.Sadly, when most of us ‘Thanetian’s’ think of seaweed we think of the pungent mounds which build up on our beaches in the summer. Through reviving the Victorian art of seaweed pressing with a modern twist Gemila hopes to help others look closer and to see the true beauty of Thanet’s seaweeds that has hitherto gone unnoticed.You can follow Gemila on Instagram: @thedriftweedartist

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