Week 5 of 52 Weeks of Nature Art was all about shells! So much inspiration right on my own door step, so fortunate.
This week, I got stuck into some watercolor painting and noticing a style starting to emerge! and some beautiful work from participants.
I also created a Pinterest board here
First of course! I just had to collect a huge bag of shells from the beach where I live. At the moment, there is an abundance of so much beauty and I had so much fun separating all the different shells into types and also by color too! Inspiration in this area is endless and I can definitely see myself revisiting this theme throughout the year.
My first drawing exercise was to draw what I see from the first collection of shells above. I help them looking down onto the shell and captured the view from above of each one. Some interesting shapes started to appear!
It was also fun to see how many white tones I could capture and then use the beautiful shell as a stamp into a piece of rolled out clay.
These shapes and color palette is what I find the most at my beach. Such beautiful creams, beige and browns. So i thought I would test my patience with watercolor to see if i could capture the essence of one of these shells.
Here is a photo of my studio desk as I got started with painting. I kept all the shells to the side for inspiration. Kind of like my shell friends as I worked through layering the watercolor to paint out the shell design.
I started very lightly with a beige to gently mark out the main aspects of the shell.
Then layered and painted the details, capturing the different colors I saw emerge from the shell. My intention was not to copy the design exactly, but to paint the feel of the shell as i saw it. I was really pleased with how this painting turned out. 🙂
The other color palette that was abundant in my collections was this beautiful mauve/purple and shimmery silver. Such a beautiful group of shells.
Then to finish the week off, I painted one of the beautiful mauve shells in my interpretation. I really enjoyed painting this and cant wait to paint more!
View more images as they unfold from the 52 Weeks of Nature Inspired Art here.
Participant images
Thank you to all who shared their images on Instagram using the #52weeksofnatureart hashtag. So much fun to see what you came up with and thank you for sharing! Here are a few I gathered to showcase. See all the gorgeous images here. We also have a Facebook group where participants are sharing there too.
Top row: @panaramadesign | @kara.peters | @artfullee
Middle row: @fabienne.tosi | @Uli Day | @Susi Sanlier‎
Bottom row: @Lisa Wright‎ | @Uli Day | @Susi Sanlier
Would you like to join me? Here are the deets
Each week in 2016, I’ll be focusing on a particular theme from nature.
I will post the theme every Monday and pop my photos, sketches and any creations I feel inspired to share on my Instagram and also my Facebook artist page, using the hashtag #52weeksofnatureart.
If you would like to join me, you can find the upcoming themes on the main page here and ways you can share your findings along the way!
I am excited to travel this nature art journey with you and thank you for connecting with me here, via my newsletter or social media.