Tidepool XII

Artist: Pam Haunschild

Format: Acrylic on paper, hand-created background paper, varnished, black float frame

Dimensions: 11" x 14" x 1.5"

Description:

The surface itself is part of the artwork here — Pam Haunschild built the background paper by hand before ever painting on it, giving this piece a texture that feels less like a painted scene and more like something excavated. Dozens of pale, circular forms cluster across the composition, layered and overlapping like barnacles crowding a rock at low tide — the quiet, dense biomass that makes up most of a tidepool's real estate, easy to overlook in favor of flashier residents. One small crab, rendered in a flash of orange and blue, sits almost camouflaged among them, more discovery than focal point. Where Haunschild's other tidepool paintings lean into saturated color, this one stays close to the earth — moss greens, soft grays, weathered browns — a reminder that a tidepool's beauty is often quiet, textural, and easy to miss if you're only looking for the crab.