Mussels

April 2025 – A 5″ x 7″ oil painting of mussel shells. Two of the shells display the outside while the others display the inside.

This painting was made to add a different subject to my portfolio. I make a lot of landscapes because I enjoy doing so, but I knew that to get better at oil painting and to show individuals what I can do with oil, I needed something different. The shell references that I used are ones that my family and I had collected in New England.

The challenge of this painting was to achieve the contrast of colors that the shell has. Because of blending and overworking, it was hard to get a dark color without it turning a lighter shade over time.