Tropical Flower from the Sea

Conch seashells are beautiful

and conch seashells are complex in form. Drawing them offers a consistent and wonderful challenge.  They have many irregular properties; for instance their shapes are complicated, no matter from what angle one looks. Turning the seashell round and drawing it from various aspects provides an artist with a delightful drawing challenge and offers the viewer an intriguing visual spectacle.  Also their surfaces have varied textures — one side is polished and subtle in hues, the back is more chalky and rough.  All the surfaces are covered with ridges and the spindle of the shell is circled by radiating points.  Undulating like a pleasing mountainous landscape, the  queen conch shell has patterns of variegated light and dark from its convex and concave surfaces.  Certain shells are also amazing for their lovely pearlesque colors.

I love to place the shells into differently colored still life settings.  In the picture Tropical Flower from the Sea a beautiful queen conch in profile is set upon a tabletop with a pale violet cloth and against a dark background where a deep red flower design abuts one curved edge of the shell. Shapes throughout the whole picture lock together like puzzle parts in a design with strong abstraction.

Tropical Flower from the Sea is an oil pastel painting on toned paper measuring 12 x 9 inches

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