Plastic accumulating in our oceans and on our beaches has become a global crisis. Billions of pounds of plastic can be found in swirling convergences that make up about 40 percent of the world’s ocean surfaces. At current rates plastic is expected to outweigh all the fish in the sea by 2050, according to the Center for Biodiversity.

plastic pollution has a direct and deadly effect on wildlife. Thousands of seabirds and sea turtles, seals and other marine mammals are killed each year after ingesting plastic or getting entangled in it. Endangered wildlife like Hawaiian monk seals and Pacific loggerhead sea turtles are among nearly 700 species that eat and get caught in plastic litter.

It’s time to get to the root of this ocean crisis. The Center of Biological Diversity has petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to begin regulating plastics as a pollutant and is working to stop plastic pollution at the source before it ever has a chance to reach the ocean.

WE NEED A STRONG GLOBAL PLASTIC TREATY

What can we do at Home to avoid using plastic and help heal the planet.

1} Always take your own carrier bag when you go shopping. Use and re-use your own carrier bags.

2} Avoid buying food wrapped in plastic. If you can shop at Whole foods or Trader Joes, you can buy vegetables that are not wrapped in plastic.

3} Refuse to take a plastic bag when you check out ask for paper bags that are biodegradable instead.

4} Write to your local grocery store’s head office and ask them to stop using plastic bags unless they are biodegradable.

Oenone’s recent paintings, Art for the Earth-Fire and Water, are now showing at Walton Fine Arts in London.

Water is the most important “element” ensuring our existence and with Oceans of Plastic awareness day on November 22nd now is a great time to consider investing in art works highlighting these issues.

Oenone’s water paintings are fantastical as she has perfected a method incorporating hand painting with multiple paint pouring. Her mixed-media technique embraces collage to create texture and complexity. These unique and powerful works have won several international awards and her most recent pieces focusing on water reflect her work becoming more textural in their abstraction, as the message to save the natural world is expressed with extraordinary power.

Deriving inspiration from her travels to Southeast Asia, India, Africa, Australia and Latin America, Oenone is committed to furthering the cause of conservation through her work with international organizations such as Ocean Conservancy and Fauna and Flora International. One of Oenone’s main concerns is the problem the planet is facing with plastic in the ocean that kills wildlife and despoils our beaches.

Walton Fine Arts is showing Oenone Hammersley’s Art for the Earth-Water and Fire paintings on cut out wooden panels and canvas. A percentage from sales will be donated to Ocean Conservancy.

Walton Fine Arts.152-154 Walton Street, London, SW3.