Hyper-realistic seascapes on display at Blackpool coffee house: "I'm happiest near the sea, I want my paintings to recreate that feeling"

Cassia Helme feels happiest when she’s near the sea, and she wants to recreate that calm feeling in her work.

She said: “It’s a serene reset. Whenever I need to press pause I just go to the beach. I find there’s something magical about being near an ocean or even a lake, it’s so calming.”

Cassia, 31, moved to Lytham in 2019, and lives five minutes from the sea - a dream come true after growing up in ‘landlocked’ Nottingham.

Now she takes inspiration from the local coastline, but also uses professional photographers' work for reference too.

“Our beaches are so beautiful and I love the vastness of the dunes. I even like Blackpool, and the urban feeling of the piers. It’s the power and unpredictability of the ocean that fascinates me. Even the dunes are always shifting and changing.”

The former musician became obsessed with painting the ocean after her first attempt in 2018 went badly.

She said: “My first water paintings were so bad, I showed them to mum and she said it didn’t really look like water. That made me really determined to improve.”

And now she has developed a hyper-realistic style, using oil and pastels - but described a ‘magic moment’ when a painting comes to life.

“It never looks like water at all, until at one point it just clicks - it’s magical, and that is such a satisfying feeling.”

The Ways Of Water is on display now until Nov 23, at HIVE Coffee House, on Church Street, Blackpool.

http://www.cassia-h-artist.co.uk/