In the early 1990s, Nahas was struck by a starfish-strewn beach on Long Island, New York, and he began casting the starfish, as well as shells and other found elements from the seashore, in silicone, creating molds that were then filled with acrylic. His experimental castings proliferated and became a repository for his relief paintings of layer upon layer of organic shapes covered in luminescent, hyperreal colours. Nahas often mixes pumice powder into his paint, further enhancing the materiality of his work, giving the impression of pure ground pigment or coral reefs.