Remnants of a major storm system that spawned several tornados across the South, and that I had just cautiously driven through on my way to the coast, still darkened the skies of the island on my first visit in April 2011. Stepping onto Main Beach for the first time, I pointed my camera northward to capture an impression of an island that seemed wilder than any I had ever seen on the Atlantic Coast.
Working on this canvas a few years later, it was the line of wrack that drew my attention. Marking a recent high tide, it had already begun to collect windblown sand. In time, if not washed over by a higher tide, it would become the foundation for a new line of dunes, marking the former location of high tide on a stretch of beach where that seems to change radically from year to year.
Stormy Main Beach hangs in LSSI’s Helen House, room 3.
Based on historical aerial photos of the beach from 2011, the location of the viewpoint is beyond the end of the boardwalk on the sand pathway to Main Beach. (Google Maps (31.24951, -81.27805)
Exhibition History
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The Wild Treasury of Nature: A Portrait of Little St. Simons Island
February 20 - May 22, 2016
Morris Museum of Art
Augusta, Georgia
July 9 - September 11, 2016
Marietta Cobb Museum of Art
Marietta, Georgia
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2015
The Lodge at Little St. Simons Island
Little St. Simons Island, Georgia
Publication History
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The Wild Treasury of Nature: A Portrait of Little St. Simons Island
Published in conjunction with Philip’s 2016 exhibition at the Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, Georgia, and the Marietta Cobb Museum of Art, Marietta, Georgia. Contributors include: Philip Juras, essay and artwork; Wendy Paulson, foreword; Kevin Grogan, introduction; Dorinda Dallmeyer, essay; and Janice Simon, essay. Published by the University of Georgia Press, 2016.
