100 happy days :: day 71

i love when i spot one of my painted snails in the yard. 

this one, i did a bit of a wonder woman-esque paint job on last summer. 

i'm glad she made it through the winter.

paint snails while the sun shines

i could only find 3, otherwise i would have painted more. later, i spotted another one, but had already put away the paints. i don't think these snails showed signs of having been among the ones we painted before, tho' i think the one i spotted later might have been erik. awesome how the vinbjerg snails live for years and years. my snail designs today were inspired by the fantastic hilma af klint exhibition we saw on saturday at louisana museum of modern art. more about that later, as now i've got to go put lotion on my sunburn and get to bed.

in the snail studio

a new canvas

why hello there sunflower!

a work in progress.

wait a minute, don't go, i'm not done yet!

hello, pretty sunflower.

not that way...

nearly finished.

i think this is my favorite shot - who knew snails were so flexible.

it's really weird how what i should paint pops into my head. 

loveliness.

the snail studio.

for those who were worried about the birds taking them, i painted feathers, so they'll think he's a bird too.

i hope your weekend is going well....

in which we subject snails to possible torture in the name of science

we've been combing our yard for the big snails - the vinbjerg ones (no idea what they're called in english) for awhile now. and whenever we see them, we get out the waterproof acrylic paints and we paint on them. because we want to to learn the truth of how much the snails really get around in the yard. oddly, we've been a bit stymied in our mission by a lack of vinbjerg snails, but tonight we found two. sabin named hers rose. here you can see why....

will someone please cut her fingernails?

and guess who did this one? :-)

we'll be looking around for our friends, to see how far they travel. i think i'll call mine erik after that viking that lead the trip to north america years before columbus. they're the best-dressed snails in the neighborhood, i tell you, tho' we haven't really been able to find the first batch of ones we did a few weeks ago. i'm not sure we've really followed scientific method very well. but we will be reporting our progress should we ever come across these guys again.