Lisa Le Quelenec Seaside studios paintings, prints and mixed media: limpet

Showing posts with label limpet. Show all posts

Friday, 14 June 2024

Little treasures from the shore

Look at these little beauties found in Scotland. I have never found these before though I believe they can be found here in the South. I may have jigged a little happy dance when I spotted the first one 😊 The colours are many and are really subtle when you look closely. I picked up these three for the variation in their colouring, the photo doesn't do them justice.

The treasures in the photo below are from a more recent trip to Kimmeridge, I think they make a nice potential palette.

Wednesday, 24 May 2023

Rockpool series - lino monoprints

I have sadly neglected my blog this last few weeks due to a number of things - just life keeping me out of mischief rather than paint or ink - but I haven't been completely idle. A new series of work is underway which is really quite different to the gulls I had been painting. With the arrival of longer Spring days and a little more sunshine I have been feeling the season. Of course I am still roaming the coast but I have been turning more attention to rockpools and the memories of the ones we explored in Jersey on my last trip....back to limpets and limpet rings, summery colours and the joyous feeling of long Summer days. Fresh breezy colours and simplified shapes are dominating at the moment with a little green creeping in at the edges.

Added drawing and mark making and then with the promise of some hot sun to come....golden yellow. All the images here are available to purchase from my Folksy Store. I am enjoying this series immensely and can see lots of ways for it to develop so I will get back to my sketchbook and try a few more experiments, I wonder which path I will take next.

Monday, 6 February 2023

Limpet portraits - acrylic on board

The four shells lying vertically in the photo above are the subjects of these first four portraits. When you closely observe and compare them you can see so many differences, each having it's own characteristics and subtleties. Hopefully you can see better in this photo below.

I have been toying with the idea of using text within work for a while. The text in two of these paintings comes from notes I made about limpets from Wikipedia. During my research of these fascinating creatures I stumbled across a paper by Dr Louise Firth, Associate Professor of Marine Ecology at the University of Plymouth, titled What Have Limpets Ever Done for US? It is fascinating reading taking in thousands of years of cultural history all over the world as well as their importance within the ecosystem and many other threads besides. If you would like to delve into this fascinating read here is a link.

Limpets are extremely common in Jersey due to the island being surrounded by the perfect rocky habitat. As a child their common sight left me a little blind to collecting them and I rarely picked them up. However during the summer on a visit to La Hougue Bie Museum I learnt a little and saw how they were considered of such importance as to be placed within the Neolithic grave mound. During the Occupation when food was scarce they became an important source of food, supplementing meagre rations - not for the first time were they known as famine food (and not just in this location). The more I read, draw and paint these tough little critters the more respect I feel for them.

All four portraits are available in my Folksy Store.

Thursday, 12 January 2023

Limpets and seaglass - watercolour

I'm not sure whether to continue painting at this point so added real shells and glass in various combinations to see where it might lead and try to nudge a decision.... I think part of the issue I have is that I am so unused to seeing my work on NOT paper as I usually use HOT PRESS and it has thrown me a bit... decisions...decisions....