She Shell Painting
It has been so hot lately, we have been at the beach as much as possible. Which means we have an abundance of shells or “she shells” as S+C call them. Our favorite beach for shelling is Sunset Beach, it is a little stretch between Bolsa Chica and Seal Beach that only has a couple rows of free parking. This keeps the amount of people on the sand down compared to its neighbors that both have large parking lots. Less people on the sand means more shells! We have been lucky there, we even find sand dollars and crab claws!
Did you know as far back as the 16th century people collected shells. “Royals were so enamored with sea shells that they built whole rooms to display these treasures from the ocean“- frenchgardenhouse.com.
There is something so thrilling about collecting shells. To find them delivered on the sand for us to scoop up then ponder their life and journey under the sea isn’t that cool? Stevie, Celeste and I enjoy imagining what the thick broken pieces looked like whole and what creatures used them for shelter. If you haven’t gone shelling lately I highly recommend it!
I do don’t discriminate against broken shells. If Stevie and Celeste think they are pretty they come home with us, this results in a lot of beach treasures!! We have been expanding our painting skills from our usual finger paints to watercolors.
The pigment and variety of colors is so much better than what we were used. I got the watercolors pictured from amazon you can shop it here.
For this project I put a big piece of cardboard on the ground with a couple water cups and lots of paint brushes. I pre-wet the watercolors to prevent the colors from getting muddy. Spoiler, they will get muddy eventually unless you closely police double dipping without rinsing the brushes. Don’t worry if the paints get muddy, your results will still beautiful! Painting the shells makes their texture stand out. It is so cool to see the striations pop with brilliant colors. This activity kept Stevie and Celeste happily occupied for hours and they continue to ask to do it every morning! If you haven’t tried painting shells you should give it a try!
