Life’s a Beach

As a New Yorker one thing that has always amused me about Melbournians is how you’re always whinging and moaning about the freezing winters – 11 degrees (52 degrees Fahrenheit) does not a freezing winter make! (That being said today is bloody freezing – and it’s spring! I must be turning into an Aussie…).

Maybe it’s the ‘long hard winters’ or just the perpetual Aussie ingrained longing for summer that has inspired a trend that I first spotted at the beginning of winter and is still going strong: beautiful, dreamy, watery prints of lucky beachgoers and endless coastlines.

From Bells to St Kilda beach and back I have seen these prints dotting walls from the high end to the low end of the market and let me tell you – I too want to kick off my shoes, toss off my coat and dive head first into them.

On the higher end of the spectrum is a really nice series from my fellow American, Thom Felicia for Coco Republic (http://www.cocorepublic.com.au). Thom is an interior designer and one of the early reality stars – about 10 years ago he was on a show called ‘Queer Eye for The Straight Guy’ where he and 3 other gay men from various disciplines would try and de-butch a bunch of straight guys that had no style or taste so that they could impress their wives and girlfriends…. Anyway, I’m digressing – Thom is still a very talented designer with a very American style and still a strong ‘brand’, but a good one at that – and he has created a range of out of focused beach scene prints for Coco Republic (which is actually an American company). These prints, mostly because of the soft focus, create a sensation that they belong to you – that they are your shots and you’re memories, or perhaps your future memories. I find them rather beautiful and nostalgic, however despite their nostalgia, they are rather contemporary, which I also quite like.

At the other end of the spectrum is Freedom Furniture’s range of beachy prints. They have a few going at the moment – a Beach Boy’s-esque throw back to the 60’s – black and white framed porthole prints of boys with their boards; they have an early bird filter framed ‘Surf Beach’ print and ‘Summer Holiday’- an aerial beach shot printed on canvas. As a general rule I really don’t like images printed on canvas, however this one is in a shadowbox frame, which is a little better but not so much so that I would buy it. The image, however, is rather beautiful. http://www.freedom.com.au/homewares/decorator-accents/wall-art/23524248/wave-rider-wall-art-80x80cm-solo/)

Speaking of aerial beach shots – my friend and photographic genius Tom Blachford has an aerial series of his own called Aerial Summertime. These are not your average beach shots, let me tell you – Tom’s shots are rich with summertime longing and with dark mystery – not what you would expect of beach shots perhaps, but that is where the genius lies. From frolicking beach goers in crystal blue waters, to specs of colourful sails amidst oily black seas, Tom’s Aerial Summertime gives you just enough to suck you in and take you to that far away place where imagination and dreams merge. (http://www.tomblachford.com/aerial-summertime)

Above is a Blachford beauty. Dive in!