Mission Accomplished!

My thirty seashell paintings are complete! The month pushed me to use variety of watercolor techniques resulting in increased competence. I've learned a lot and I'm a better painter for it!

I hope you enjoyed the journey! I have appreciated all the nice comments. I've enjoyed looking at the art of all the other artists too. Well done, my friends!

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29 of 30 Another Banded Tulip (Broken Shell Series)

A Rose Is A Rose (Banded Tulip)

5" X 7"

Watercolor

$85
Click here to purchase

This painting isn't quite finished, but I'm in a workshop this week requiring driving back and forth and hour and a half, which makes for a long day. I also had the opportunity to attend a reception last night on a Royal Navy ship, so I wasn't even able to work on it last night.

The shell in this painting is below:

I forgot to add a coin to these photos give you a size reference; it is about 2" long and the one on the right in the bottom photo.

I'll be a bit late posting on the last day, since that painting is not even halfway at this point. At least I have no Saturday morning obligations! I cannot wait to put my collage together and see all thirty as a group. It's my favorite day to go look at other artists work.

This month has been thrilling. I've done at least ten paintings that I will have a hard time parting with.  I've found many artists to follow on Facebook and Instagram. I've picked up some followers of my own too! I love how the art world just keeps expanding in my social media outlets!

23 of 30 Hawk-wing Conch (Broken Shell Series)

The World Stopped Spinning (Hawk-wing Conch, Juvenile)

4" X 6"

Watercolor

$75

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This fragment was irresistible because it answered a question that had been spinning about in my brain. I wondered if the beautiful exterior of shells remained that way as they become the interior walls as a shell grows. It seemed sensible to believe that they would. The particular way that this shell was broken provides the answer because it lays bare two inner walls.

It makes me both happy and sad to think of this hidden beauty within shells. I like knowing it's there, but I wish I could marvel at it without the shell being broken.

17 of 30 Banded Tulip (Broken Shell Series)

Never Too Old to Blush (Banded Tulip Shell)

4" X 6"

Watercolor

$75

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When the spire of a shell is broken off, the architecture within looks like a partially opened flower bud. This shell is sun-bleached and its lines nearly faded away, but it may have been a banded tulip shell, though it seems a bit sturdier, or thicker than the typical tulip.

I loved how the light in my reference photo caught the edges in this photo while bringing a glow to the shell from within, hence the title.

16 of 30 American Stars (Broken Shell Series)

The Glimpse Inside (American Star Shells)

5" X 7"

Watercolor

$85

Click here to purchase

I can't be sure when it started, but on my shelling trips, I've become more and more picky about which shells to bring home. Over Christmas break, my college-age son took a walk on the beach with me. He kept picking up shells and handing them to me. Often they were chipped or bleached. Since he isn't four and has had to pack up and move with our family six times, he knows that my collection has limits, I explained that I appreciated it, but that I am pretty picky.

This line of thought led me to thinking about beauty in general. TED did a talk on beauty that was quite interesting. Beauty can be hard to define. We know it when we see it; at least, we know what we think is beautiful when we see it.

I can't explain why I love the zebra arks and dislike the red-brown ark. I hoard the colorful moonsnails and toss back the smooth Atlantic tegulas. I adore the long-spined stars and don't keep the American stars when they are whole.

I do pick up a lot of American stars when they are broken. The American star shell is one of the prettiest shells when the waves take a toll on it. At that point, the chamber inside is more visible and the patterns of construction are revealed. I hope you like this painting, the first in a series of broken and worn seashells. There is beauty in imperfection. I hope to show you some of it.