About

Hello! I'm Holly Crowe.

Holly’s Cove was born out of a love for the sea in 2018, at Muir Beach, California, where I spent hours hunting for sea glass along the shore.

Sea glass—often called “mermaid tears”—takes years of tumbling along the ocean floor to become smooth and beautifully shaped, each piece holding a story of its own. While creating mosaic art from these ocean gems, one design unexpectedly resembled a mermaid tail. That moment sparked something. I began experimenting with watercolor to capture the sea glass’s soft, shifting hues. Around the same time, my young daughter started painting mermaid scales—and that’s how the idea of sea leggings was born.

My mermaid scale designs are created with a deep love for the sea. Each one carries its own message—an invitation to connect with the ocean and to bring awareness to its beauty and fragility.

I currently reside in Southern California, in the City of Angels, where salty air and palm trees offer a daily sense of renewal. My favorite place to recharge is Santa Monica Beach.

Medium: Painting
Style: Watercolor, nautical, whimsical, and ethereal

My Process

Each design begins on bright white watercolor paper, where I work by hand using premium-quality watercolors—liquid pigments, dry paints, and watercolor pencils. Every piece starts with a hand-drawn scale pattern that is intentionally imperfect, followed by freeform, intuitive painting.

Once the paintings are complete, I scan them into Photoshop, where they are carefully duplicated and assembled like pieces of a puzzle. This digital step is used solely to bring the watercolor work together into a cohesive design. No digital artwork is added—the medium remains purely watercolor, guided by hand, instinct, and the organic nature of the paint itself.

                    Muir Beach, CA