Auger Shell 4.5ins x 6ins Oil on Board

I found a couple of shells I had once used as ornaments in the bottom of an old suitcase in the bottom of a cupboard in my bedroom. This according to my research on the Internet is an Auger Shell or Terebridae which is a kind of carnivorous sea mollusc/snail that lives on the bottom of the sea, particularly around coasts and hides in the sand where it lays in wait to kill other poor unsuspecting sea creatures mostly worms with a poisonous barb. Well I'm glad to say it wasn't laying in wait for me in the bottom of my suitcase. I thought this shell would make a nice painting. :)

The Dolphin and the Crab were Friends

I did this painting as an illustration for a children's book around 1992. Being intended as an illustration it was painted on clear acetate over a pencil sketch, which proves layers were not invented by Adobe. :)

Well it's bit different than my usual work, but I thought I'd put it in my daily painting blog since it's interesting to put something different in, and because I haven't been doing quite so many paintings lately because I have been busy making some of my designs, illustrations and paintings available on various products including Posters, framed prints, greetings cards on a new custom products site called Zazzle.com

So that's another reason why I hunted out this illustration. I thought it would make a nice greetings card So I have made it available both as a greetings card and as a small print

The picture on the left is how it might look as a framed print. Although there are millions of other ways to frame it. :)