Exploring the coast and supporting marine conservation with Global Shorelines

Kevin J Healy is an Anglo-Irish artist and teacher based in Trimley St Martin. He trained as a fine art printmaker at Brighton School of Art (1978-81), followed by a postgraduate education in Cardiff. Kevin worked in arts education in Suffolk schools for 32 years before retiring in 2015.

For the last three and a half years, Kevin has been working on the Global Shorelines project as a response to marine pollution (particularly ocean plastics). He creates artwork with a focus on the transition point between sea and land using photography, drawing and printmaking. Kevin also collects images of dramatic coasts, which are sent to him by photographers, artists, academics, marine biologists, geologists, teachers, television presenters, naturalists, conservationists, authors, travel bloggers, swimmers, hikers, climbers and many more. The project is not specifically about professional photographers; it is more about people who are concerned about our marine habitats and capturing a moment, or a sense of place, in the natural environment.

Kevin says: “I mount exhibitions and sell my work, giving all money raised to marine conservation charity work. It is my small way of paying something back to the planet. I launched the project with an exhibition in Felixstowe in September 2020 and throughout 2022 I mounted exhibitions in Scotland (Gairloch Heritage Museum), England (Yare Gallery, Great Yarmouth) and Wales (Life: Full Colour Gallery, Caernarfon). At each exhibition, I also sold a book of collected coastal landscape photographs, which is available locally at Stillwater Books, Hamilton Road, Felixstowe.”

The project is self-funded and all proceeds in the UK are given to the Marine Conservation Society. Kevin is currently working to expand the book and hopes to support marine conservation projects further afield throughout 2023-2025.

Kevin has hundreds of coastal landscape images, which have been sent to him from every continent on the planet. Anyone across the globe can contribute an image and a sentence of commentary, but the more well-known celebrities and academics help to raise the status of the project. Celebrities and academics who have contributed to the project include:

Sir Chris Bonington CVO, CBE, DL

Chris Packham CBE

Griff Rhys Jones OBE

Iolo Williams

Megan McCubbin

Doug Allan FRPS, FRSGS

Giles Coren

Matt Tebbutt

Joe Lycett

Paul Murton

Lizzy Daly

Miranda Krestovnikoff

Michaela Strachan

Dr Tara Shine

Dr John Turnbull

Dr Toby Driver

Dr David Gange

Dr Richard Lilley

Dr Chaosheng Zhang

Dr Ed Pollard

Emeritus Prof: Jean Fleming

Emeritus prof: Douw Steyn

Professor Duncan McIlroy

Adam Nicolson 5th Baron Carnock

Dr Briony Mathew (UK Ambassador to Iceland)

Kevin adds: “The project has been featured by Georgie Jamieson on BBC Radio and Tom MacSweeney on Irish Radio. I like to think that image contributors get some additional, positive publicity and exposure through the project.”

If you would like to contact Kevin or share an image, you can do so through the website: https://globalshorelines.com

You can also follow Kevin and the Global Shorelines project on Twitter: @ComShorelines and Instagram: @globalshorelines