An Index of the Colour of Water

Artist’s book

An Index of the Colour of Water pairs daily photographs of the sea with descriptions of the colour of water found in books within The Nature Library.

A limited edition of 30, each book one cover for each day in April when the sea was photographed.

After offering some foraged Ayrshire sea buckthorn to Dookit brewing, I was asked to provide the artwork for Balla-Mara, a brew incorporating sea buckthorn and Blackthorn salt. The process had its own ebb and flow, responding to updates on how the beer was coming along, such as the level of sea buckthorn in the final brew. The name Balla-Mara, Gaelic for ‘sea wall’, leans on the original foraged sea buckthorn which came from the dunes of Troon beach, built to protect the area from coastal erosion.

Sea buckthorn and marram grass windswept in the foreground. A muted blue and grey sea can be seen through the shrubs and a gull flies overhead. Film burn scores an orange and white band across the bottom third of the image.

Balla Mara beer bottle on display with Blackthorn Salt