The Wave - Pierre-Auguste Renoir - Google Cultural Institute

A seascape is a

photograph A photograph (also known as a photo, image, or picture) is an image created by light falling on a photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor, such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are now create ...

, painting, or other work of art which depicts the

sea The sea, connected as the world ocean or simply the ocean, is the body of salty water that covers approximately 71% of the Earth's surface. The word sea is also used to denote second-order sections of the sea, such as the Mediterranean Sea, ...

, in other words an example of

marine art Marine art or maritime art is a form of figurative art (that is, painting, drawing, printmaking and sculpture) that portrays or draws its main Sea in culture, inspiration from the sea. Maritime painting is a genre that depicts ships and the sea� ...

. The word originated as a formation from

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...

, which was first used of images of land in art. By a similar development, "seascape" has also come to mean actual views of the sea itself, and to be applied in planning contexts to geographical locations possessing a good view of the sea.

History

The word seascape was first recorded and coined in 1790. It was modelled after the term landscape. In modern times, seascapes have endured partially in depictions of maritime works of art, as well as views of the sea.

Planning use

In the UK a seascape is defined in planning and land use contexts as a combination of adjacent land, coastline and

within an area, defined by a mix of land-sea inter-visibility and coastal landscape character assessment, with major headlands forming division points between one seascape area and the next. This approach to coastal

landscape planning Landscape planning is a branch of landscape architecture. According to Erv Zube (1931–2002) landscape planning is defined as an activity concerned with developing landscaping amongst competing land uses while protecting natural processes and s ...

was developed jointly by Government environmental bodies in Wales (UK) and Ireland in 2000 to assist spatial planning for (at that time new) offshore wind farm developments. The resulting "Guide to best practice in seascape assessment" (Marine Institute, Ireland, 2001), have since been adapted and applied in Scotland and Wales for guidance to offshore wind farm developers and for carrying out spatial planning assessments. Meanwhile, the word has also been adopted in England
English Heritage, 2008) referring to the historic and archaeological character areas of the sea – a different but complementary methodological approach encompassing what lies beneath the sea surface. This use of the word departs from the focus on scenery and visual perception, relying instead just on cognitive perception (what lies beneath the sea surface is out of sight to most of us). The Welsh language distinguishes between 'Morluniau' (seascape in the traditional sense of a

picture An image is a visual representation of something. It can be two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or somehow otherwise feed into the visual system to convey information. An image can be an artifact, such as a photograph or other two-dimensiona ...

view A view is a sight or prospect or the ability to see or be seen from a particular place. View, views or Views may also refer to: Common meanings * View (Buddhism), a charged interpretation of experience which intensely shapes and affects thou ...

or painting) and 'Morweddau' (seascape as a distinct, geographical area exhibiting particular characteristics and qualities). There is no such distinction in the English language.

References

{{portal, Environment, Visual arts, Oceans Land use Landscape Water in art Sea in culture