Sketches by the Sea paints the quiet beauty of the PNW
The artists live on their sailboat in Seattle designing posters, stickers and more inspired by the region's landscapes.
Marisa Firebaugh’s love affair with the sea began when she was a child. She recalls long drives down the Pacific Coast Highway in northern California to different beaches, where her father — a professional diver and fisherman — would don a wetsuit and equip a kayak and speargun, to dive for abalone and halibut.
“That meant my mom and I and whatever dogs we had at that point would usually just wait on the beach till he came back, so I would spend hours playing in tide pools and just playing on the beach,” Firebaugh said. “I would often rescue starfish from tide pools and put them back in the water.”
Firebaugh grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and attended the Academy of Art University. After graduating in 2014, she moved onto a 1980s Catalina 30 that did not have a working engine, but had a striking view of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Looking down what she called the “loaded barrel of student loans,” Firebaugh spent most of her time on boats painting, sketching and selling her work — thus, her business Sketches by the Sea was born.
“The majority of how it started was out of a desperate need to pay bills and now it has a very clear stylistic and artistic direction I wanna take it in,” Firebaugh said.
Firebaugh moved up to Seattle in 2017 with her now-husband Andrew Steers, a fellow artist who taught her how to sail and is now her business partner. Inspired by Great Depression-era WPA posters of national parks, the couple started designing posters of local places. The two live on a 36-foot Catalina, and they like to take a month off in the summer to sail, paint and draw.
“I love all the little towns up in the San Juans and I'm constantly blown away by how amazing the state marine parks are in Washington,” Firebaugh said. “I want them to be protected. I want them to be funded, and if us creating posters that celebrates those locations helps, then we wanna do that.”
Painting the Pacific Northwest is different from painting the Bay Area, Firebaugh said. Up here, the region is full of lush greens and the deep blues of the water are a dark ultramarine. In the Bay Area, she found that there’s more hues of brown and gold, and the water is a brownish turquoise.
“Everybody knows California is beautiful … but I think the Pacific Northwest is slept upon. I don't think there's a lot of appreciation for how beautiful it is,” Firebaugh said.
Now, Firebaugh and her husband are continuing to expand Sketches by the Sea with locally designed souvenirs and art prints. They’re currently working on a poster of the San Juan Islands. Firebaugh also said they’re looking for opportunities to collaborate and partner with like-minded artisans and environmental preservation groups.