Surreal Still Life

For our Surrealism topic, our teacher brought in a heap of interesting organic forms to study and draw inspiration from, including fish, oysters, a skinned pig head, crab claws, shells and bones. We were also recommended to look at the work of James Gleeson to put the still life into context. It was really quite enjoyable to draw something completely different, I only wish I could have spent more time in the studio with the still life, there was so many things to draw/paint. But it did start to smell eventually . I mushed all the objects together into one big writhing form, and I especially enjoyed the oysters and the flesh of the fish, which you can see was pried open, depicted at the base of the work. I also made a habit of dabbing flecks of light on the form to give it a glistening touch. Hideous, I know. But I like it

Soft pastel on A1 cartridge paper