Studio Dr Martin W Smit
Architecture - Design - Art
 
 
Spirula
Magazine of the Dutch Malacological Society
 

"My fathers shells"

 

Summary. The author’s father was a sailor and brought his son seashells from far away. This did not primarily elicit a shell collector but rather a lover a their beauty. Some examples of artwork produced by the author are presented here.

I must have been ten years old when my father, who was a seafarer, returned from one of his travels to distant lands and gave me a shell. Of course, I was very happy with it because it was something my father had given me. So I put the shell on the windowsill behind my desk so I could always look at it. And every time my father was away travelling the seas, I liked to grab the shell and look at it. I then felt a little closer to my father. I also discovered that when you put the snail close to your ear it was as if you could hear the sea. For a while I was at sea with my father.


However, I also began to look more and more at the shell itself. The beautiful windings with the beautiful color pattern started to interest me more and more. The internet was not there yet and books were a bit too much for the pocket money for a boy of ten. However, I discovered that the nearby bookstore had a few richly illustrated books on shells. My shell turned out to be a Cittarium pica.

My father already knew that I was interested in the shell world and regularly brought a new shell with him. Especially when he sailed for a number of years on the line from the Netherlands to New Zealand and visited the islands in the Pacific Ocean, more and more beautiful specimens came with him. I also built my first shell box, still with all kind of shells mixed up, but you already had a nice overview. I have moved many times in my life but the shell boxes always went with me, after all, one does not throw away a shell!


Years later, when I was in my fifties and working as an architect, I became more and more interested in the aesthetic side of the shells. Not only the color patterns but also the shapes. Because as an architect I not only made many sketches but also worked with drawing programs, so one day decided to make a drawing of a shell: the Conus marmoreus. I did it in black and white because I felt that in that way the shapes and patterns were represented in the best way. I liked it and started to draw more shells. As I drew, I discovered more and more the enormous variety.


I'll show you a few examples here. The drawings are intended to be artistic, not as a tool for determinations. That's why I did not mention (possible) species names.

 
Spirula My father's Shell