Jayne’s designs take beach art to a whole new level
REGULAR beachgoers may have come across patterned arrangements of stones on their trips to the seaside recently.
Many of these will be the work of Jayne Packham, who, as lockdown eased, decided to augment her love of sea swimming by creating art on the beach.
‘I’ve only just started doing it,’ she said. ‘I love the sea so I headed off to the pink granite of Grandes Rocques and created what I call “heart amphitheatre” – an expression of protecting our loved ones during lockdown.’
Having caught the stone art ‘bug’, not long afterwards she sought out a quiet corner of Chouet to create a circular sun offering under the loophole tower.
This took her longer than her first creation, but fortunately lockdown had eased a bit by then. ‘It was a very hot afternoon in April and took me all of my four hours to finish,’ she said.
There followed a stream of new creations, including one on a beach near Beaucette Marina, which she made in memory of her friend, John Rowe, who died recently.
‘He loved riding his KTM motorcycle so I was inspired to create a sea spiral from the bright orange clay that washes up in this area.
‘I’m always amazed that every beach and cove in Guernsey births different shapes and colours of rock.’
Soon she started creating works in the sand: ‘A photographer friend of mine who follows me on Instagram [mum.of.anarchy] suggested I try sand art. Never one to pass up a challenge, I set off with my garden rake to Petit Port to create a huge fireball sun,’ she said.
‘I wanted the cliff walkers to have a nice surprise when they rounded the corner. I think it turned out pretty good.’
The stone creations take two to three hours, so she does not always have time to make these: ‘It depends on how intricate they are. I probably do one every couple of weeks, but the sand art I can do more often.
‘I try to make them as simple as possible but as eye-catching as possible.’
While her work will eventually fall victim to the sea, she said she checks the tides and aims to put her creations in a place where they can remain for as long as possible.
Other beaches where she has made sand or stone art include L’Ancresse and Les Amarreurs.
‘I just like being creative,’ she said.
‘I was surprised that people really liked it.’
