The Art of the Ocean

Paul Veit is a local Newport, RI artist with an enormous creative passion. His medium of choice is sea glass and driftwood that he personally collects from local beaches. The beauty of the beach follows you home when you hang one of his sea glass sun catchers in your window. The way the sunlight illuminates the sea glass is simply enchanting.

Paul has been creating these oceanic works of art for over 20 years. He found that “there was something really magical about the tiny 'drops' of color lying in the warm sunlight and only visible up close”. Paul was inspired to create a way of displaying sea glass that would really do justice to its beauty but in an unusual and interesting way. His idea of creating a window in a piece of driftwood to showcase the sea glass is ingenious. Combining these two elements of the shoreline really captures the essence of the beach. Even if you now live hundreds of miles away from the ocean, one of Paul’s sun catchers will bring back your fondest memories of hunting for sea glass, swimming and jumping waves, or just lounging in the sand.

A huge amount of thought and hard work goes into each of Paul’s creations. Just the amount of time that he spends collecting the sea glass and driftwood is astounding. Paul favors the rockiest beaches of Newport and has become quite a rock climber in order to reach the best spots for sea glass. Once he’s in a good area he must then use tweezers in order to retrieve some of the smallest pieces. When Paul begins hand crafting his sun catchers he draws inspiration from the beach itself as well as Newport’s gardens, trees, and wildflowers. Each of his creations has its own story. Even the abstract, colorful designs are inspired by the vibrant tide pools that Paul observes while he’s collecting his nautical treasures. The way he can create a picture out of sea glass is miraculous. One of my personal favorites is a sun catcher picturing a stone wall, grass, a large tree, and the sky… all created using different colors of sea glass and narrow beach stones for the branches of the tree.

All of Paul’s sun catchers are suspended by a piece of fishing line that has been adorned with a colorful stack of sea glass. Prices start at $30 each and the sizes of the sun catchers range from 2 inches to 20 inches long. Paul Veit’s creations are available at Green Envy Eco-Boutique in the Brick Market Place of Newport, RI.