Portia Knight is a New Zealander who has made the UK her home for many years and now has a base on Scotland’s north-east coast. Drawn to the shoreline as a place of refuge and inspiration, she developed a fascination with the Victorian pastime of seaweed pressing - a tradition once popular with naturalists and collectors who sought to catalogue and celebrate the rich variety of sea plants found along Britain’s coasts.
Her work celebrates the overlooked beauty and diversity of seaweed, transforming natural fragments gathered at low tide into striking, delicate compositions. Using only drift or “cast” seaweed, Portia carefully selects, arranges, and presses each specimen onto watercolour paper, allowing the drying process over several weeks to reveal its unique form, colour, and texture.
The resulting pressings are at once scientific in their detail and artistic in their expression - a balance of observation, patience, and imagination. Each piece reflects both the resilience of the sea and the quiet poetry of nature, inviting viewers to pause and look more closely at the hidden treasures of Scotland’s shoreline.
