Morris Shulman was born in Savannah, Georgia, but spent most of his professional career in Manhattan. He studied with Hans Hofmann in 1948–49 and painted on Maine's Monhegan Island from about 1947–65. Rocks & Sea is representative of his works from the period from the very late 1940s through the mid-1950s. Shulman is very well listed, and his works can be found in the National Museum of American Art at the Smithsonian.