Pea Island Art Gallery

Representing 100+ East Coast artists in multiple mediums, Pea Island Art Gallery is built as an historic replica of a 19th century lifesaving station. Beautiful inside and out like its vivacious owner and artist in residence, Kim Robertson, the gallery is filled to the brim with watercolors, oils and acrylics, sculpture, jewelry, photography, glass, pottery, wood, fiber, garden art, etchings and hand-pulled fine art prints.

Robertson presents her coastal imagery created by a unique process. She first shoots a photograph of a subject. Then hand transfers the photo onto handmade paper using chemicals. Only a ghost of the original image appears due to the textural quality of the paper. It resembles a soft and fuzzy, black and white photograph. Robertson then adds watercolor to “solidify” or highlight certain areas to affect mood and composition. She has a light touch and instinctually senses the ebb and flow of her subjects as she enriches some areas and lets others wash away. She then shoots a photo of the finished product with a large format camera to produce a negative. In the darkroom she creates a final image from the negative adding “richness, texture and color” using filters.

Limited editions are created in varying sizes of the final image. Each one is individually done and can bear slight variations as a result. The work features red poppies, old lifesaving boats, palm trees, beach chairs, parrots, bamboo forests and more.

Make sure to check out the coastal sea and landscapes by Robertson’s mother Donna. They are stunning.