In the intertidal areas of the Budgewoi lagoon (they call it a lake!) are these long spiral shells. They exist there in great numbers as discarded items and in the sand about the lagoon a fascinating little snail lives its quiet life almost unnoticed.

Looking for some symbol of this place led me these innocuous creatures and their dumps of shells. It may be that the many hundreds of shells are unnoticed aboriginal middens or it may be that they are places heavily traveled by old snails. Like the fabled elephant’s graveyard in miniature.

Those shells normally range from half a centimeter to two or three centimeters in length (2.5 cent is an inch) I wanted to draw and photograph some items of seascape and felt they should come from the local land and water.

There are a not a lot of things of that nature to be found in places my mobility aid can access and considering the lack of shells and other items even in the dunes behind the beach they may be almost as rare on the sand as well. The tiny shells sat about the cabin for a couple of years.

The Shell 90cm long, acrylic on canvas unfinished

I was struggling with finding a subject for a highly textured style which had decided to birth itself off the back of distressed surfaces on earlier works and began The Shell, acrylic on canvas.  90 x 30cm. It is taken from a photograph of a 1cm shell sitting about on the shelves here. The snails and their whole intertidal habitat may not be as striking as surf or coral reefs but it is beautiful and rich when in it’s natural and healthy state. It fascinates me. The shell became a thread of several drawings as well.

Intertidal snail shell from Budgewoi Lake. Ink dots on paper, approx A4

The painting reached a point about six months ago where I was having technical difficulties and was too ill to do more on it so it remains unfinished for now.

The same shell has been reproduced as an ink dot drawing and it’s beautiful texture is perfect for that sort of medium. I am also trying to find a few stable health days so the same shell can be the basis for a simple watercolor and ink combination.

The pleasure I have been getting from working from that one simple shell has caused me to think of further studies and images. A quick scoot around the place soon suggested there really was no way to get shells direct from nature while I was trapped within the bounds of my mobility aid’s running surfaces. I asked some friends if they had shells and although one or two did have them I realized they would be as attached to theirs as I was to mine. I also have a mental image of the images I wish to attempt.

Mum is gathering a few mini shells and I may do may do a large, framed, mixed-media job with them as objects behind glass among the drawings. Lots of unwell days between now and then, so although it is really only a week or two of work in a normal studio, here it could be up to a year. It is good to be looking forward to finishing images again though!

I discovered a guy who is a shell specialist and just happens to visit markets and the local Budgewoi Circle on Sundays and trotted over to see him this morning. The three shells in the image at the top of the page are the three I bought although he had a couple of very cheap bags with ranges of shells in them and I may get one eventually. The intention is to keep primarily to exploring the one subject for now but these others give a bit of range.

News about other things:

The Grim City Drawings are all finished. That took many months longer than I expected…after you get past the fact that that I am a little surprised that they came about at all. At the moment I am limiting my work over the next few years to a few strands. The lino prints which are stalled for now. I just don’t have much energy. A future line of ink drawings of the old, working class and weekender style dwellings at Budgewoi. They will be gone one day and because they are often cheap and simple asbestos buildings a lot of people hold them in contempt. More fool them. They are one symbol of the lives and efforts of a whole culture, I hope I can do them justice if I am able to get to working on them. There will be another Grim City Series. The one just past is my first effort to regain some of my drawing skills and is simple and stark. Hopefully I can expand to a better range of effects and images on the new one. The shell images are the second tier of my attempt to expand myself back to some level of skill and includes some graphic techniques, ink and watercolor. The painting of the shell sits alone and unfinished unless I find a burst of energy to finish it. Finishing that one may trigger the start of another but it’s a long distance in time from here I guess. Now I am off for a snooze. Making up the entry is my all for today!