Nautilus

This painting is oil on board and 6"x15". At first I planned to paint in an illustrative manner mimicing scientific drawings and leaving the red background. Now I've decided to place the shells on a dark ground with reflections. I will also change the blue-gray shade of the left shell to a pink-ochre color. The nautilus has survived millions of years virtually unchanged. It is from the same family as the octopus; its shell is its skeleton. As Oliver Wnedell Holmes wrote,

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, As the swift seasons roll! Leave thy low-vaulted past! Let each new temple, nobler than the last, Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, Till thou at length art free, Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea

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