Artist behind Emsworth seaweed sculptures is revealed

Under the cover of night, while out walking her dog Benji, Karen spent hours creating life-sized seaweed sculptures of men and women sunbathing on the shore.

Each one of the sculptures took several hours and at one point there were 20 of them dotted around the harbour – until the tide began washing them away this week.

The sculptures have been causing a huge stir since they began appearing in June, with people flocking to Nore Barn Woods and Avocet Quay, at the bottom of Emsworth Boat Yard, to take photographs.

At first Karen wanted to remain anonymous but now says she is happy to be identified following the joy the sculptures have brought to the community.

‘My whole objective was to show nature mirroring nature’, said Karen.

‘Everybody was complaining about the horrible volume of seaweed’.

‘I picked it up and thought, “I’m artistic, I can do something with this”.

‘In the middle of the night I had a brainwave and became a bit obsessed.’

n All photos by John Twedell