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This article examines tropes such as exoticism and heterotopia in relation to the beach. Discussing these issues from a practitioner's perspective and with reference to his own work, the author explores the extent to which the beach might offer a way of rethinking boundaries and categories. His paintings deal with the beach as exotic space and with how issues such as alterity and Otherness manifest themselves in the gaze of the beholder. The article explores the ambiguity of the site of the beach and how this is reflected in a variety of contexts. These often contradictory meanings, worked through in his paintings, reflect not only on the diverse interpretations of the beach, but also on the characteristic ability of the beach to unite opposed elements. Finally, the article investigates the possibility of creating by destroying as an intrinsic aspect of the beach. In the analysis of his paintings and aspects of the beach in relation to its ephemeral character of creation and destruction, this article shows how categories such as creation/destruction can be problematised. The article seeks to propose the beach as a model for a new understanding of this apparently contradictory visual economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jane Darke, artist and filmmaker, lives on a beach. She collects and records debris that wash in. She also paints them, letting thus chance influence her work. She also paints the beach, a 'pale world' she insists, defined by 'transience' and 'interconnectedness'. She writes and makes films about the beach and understands her work as 'celebration', seeking a balance between the subject of the work and her own meaning-creating emphasis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An image of an acrylic painting of a beach is presented.

The article presents the painting "Baby Girl on the Beach," by Deanna Miller.