Portia Knight
Portia ventures out at low tide, combining the rock pools along the shoreline .
Foraging and pressing seaweed from the northern coasts of Scotland, Portia Knight's love for marine algae continues through her pin-sharp, variegated greetings' cards. Her pressed seaweed, foraged from passing storms and ebbing tides, takes a variety of form, colour and texture - a phenomenon she shares for those mesmerised by nature in Scotland.
Shop Portia Knight's Collection
Originally from New Zealand, Portia Knight moved to the Uk and quickly found a deep love and admiration for Scotland — the landscape, the big sky and the people.
Her home on the north east coast became a refuge, and her interest in the art of seaweeding grew after reading about its Victorian 'seaweed hunting' roots. Portia found a growing desire to pursue her creativity by the seashore.
In capturing and sharing some of Portia’s favourite pressings she hopes to shine a light on the beauty and diversity of seaweed found in our seas.
Portia ventures out at low tide, combining the rock pools along the shoreline — the places where floating seaweed is easier to see and gather. It's here that Portia can really enjoy the 'slowness' of seaweeding — taking time to really look and enjoy the experience.
The foraged seaweed is brought back home in water to keep it fresh and cool and thus begins the task of examining each more closely, assessing them in terms of size, form and colour.
Portia then begins to press her seaweed onto watercolour paper. The entire pressing process takes a minimum of 4 weeks — allowing the seaweed and watercolour paper to fully dry out — at which point the original pressing is ready to be photographed.
