Before there was plastic, there was shell. Victorians used to make fishing lures from the mother of pearl of large shells. The chatoyance of the layers of nacre glowing softly underwater like the scales of a minnow, the red and white feathers giving just the right flip of a tail and the red dot would have simulated the eye.

These lures are the subject of the new “shell field” painting I’ve started.

Hundreds more to go….