Artist Creates Captivating Animal Portraits From Seashells Found At The Beach

It seems that during the pandemic, a lot of us found some new hobbies and interesting things to do. Some of us learned some useful skills such as cooking and gardening, got interested in a healthy lifestyle, started doing sports outdoors, or turned to our creative side and started painting or got into DIY things. We all had to become creative since the range of activities was minimized and traveling was out of the question.

More: Anna Chan, Instagram h/t: boredpanda

Anna Chan, who is a jeweler and designer, took the best out of the situation. The New York-based artist went to Robert Moses State Park, where she would spend her days by the beach. There she started sand sculpting as she had an idea to create 12 art pieces for a 2021 calendar. Soon this evolved into “an obsession”: creating beautiful, symmetrical mosaics and real-life animal portraits.

The portraits are so detailed that one might only wonder how long it takes to make one mosaic. According to Anna, larger creations take a minimum of 3 days to a week or more. “The mosaic work looks simple once completed, but finding the right shell piece to fit into space can be challenging. When I first started at the beach, I was able to complete them in 5-6 hours from collecting shells to finished sculpture, but my work has since evolved and become more detailed and dimensional, which requires extra care and precision while putting it together.” As Anna explains later, she moved her “workplace” from the beach to her home.