This is the mussel shell painting that started it all I believe. From here, I have painted oversize paintings of mussel shells as three poured watercolours, in acrylics and in oils. My fascination with these shells is never ending.

This watercolor started with a handful of open mussel shells scattered along the tide line. The kind you step over without thinking—blue-black, curved like question marks, glinting slightly in the sun. Some still hinged together, others flared wide, empty.

There’s something quietly beautiful about what the sea leaves behind. These shells, once homes, now hollowed out and weathered by salt and time, seem both fragile and strong. That duality pulled me in.

Painting them in watercolor felt right. The soft washes gave room for the edges to blur, like memories. I let the paper stay a little rough in places, like sand clinging where the tide didn’t quite rinse clean.

I think of this one less as a still life and more as a quiet moment—an echo of life on the beach.

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