Collected

This piece started as an arranged still-life of seashells found by my girlfriend over a period of years and frequent visits to South Padre Island. It started with water-based oils to sketch in the dark shapes and then generalized colors. After that first phase, I switched to traditional oils and worked in chunks, moving here and there around the canvas, refining shells and discovering new ones that would need to be brought into the composition. I was really interested in achieving depth with the shells, seeing what pieces could poke up into the light and which would fall into shadow.