Nautilus

Nautilus, 12x9 pastel, 2010

Last weekend's trip to the Art Institute of Chicago left me feeling inspired, even if my family wasn't so impressed.  During the week I was able to (mostly) finish two pieces.  One was an oil which still needs a little work; I'll post that one later.  The other was the pastel I've posted here.

I've been thinking about ideas for pastels ever since my Colourfix paper arrived, but this one ended being more of an impulse than a planned painting.   The shell was bought by my husband many years ago while on spring break in Florida and it's been calling out to be painted for quite some time, but the iridescent interior put me off a bit.  With new paper and new pastels in hand, I decided to give it a try.   It took some effort on my part, but my main goal was not to get too caught up in perfection and to keep it loose.  Having a set of very soft pastels helps, it's hard to get too detailed with them.