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 Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and a ...

, 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. 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 The coast, also known as the coastline or seashore, is defined as the area where land meets the ocean, or as a line that forms the boundary between the land and the coastline. The Earth has around of coastline. Coasts are important zones in ...

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 was developed jointly by Government environmental bodies in

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

(UK) and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

in 2000 to assist spatial planning for (at that time new)

offshore wind farm Offshore wind power or offshore wind energy is the generation of electricity through wind farms in bodies of water, usually at sea. There are higher wind speeds offshore than on land, so offshore farms generate more electricity per amount of ...

developments. The resulting "Guide to best practice in seascape assessment" (Marine Institute, Ireland, 2001), have since been adapted and applied in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

and

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 Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic language of the Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut Province, Argentina). Historically, it h ...

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-dimension ...

, view or

) 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