Tiny Treasures: A Childhood Love of Seashells Becomes Art

As a child, I imagine you picked up a seashell off the sand at least once. I’d wager it felt like discovering treasure—a small token from the sea meant only for you. Maybe your treasures came from the trees instead: feathers, acorns, smooth stones. Did you give them to your mother? Tuck them into a secret box? Line them up on your windowsill?
I know I did.

Somewhere in my teens and twenties, I abandoned this pastime, eager to feel more adult, more serious. But in embracing my identity as an artist—and later as a mother—I’ve realized that the child collector within me was right all along. Sand dollars, butterfly wings, tide-washed shells… what gifts they truly are.

Step into my studio and you’ll find shelves lined with crab claws and mollusks, pencil jars filled with crow feathers. But it wasn’t until 2020 that I began painting these finds, creating a collection of “Tiny Treasures” on 4x3" illustration board, each brushed with metallic paint. They lived proudly on my window sill—until a storm blew rain straight into my studio and ruined them.

Heartbroken, I let the project go. I painted shells here and there, but not as a series.

This year, I felt the pull to return to them—this time on sturdier ground.
The 2025 Tiny Treasures are painted on 4x4" cradled wood panels and sealed generously in varnish. The varnish over metallic paint (a detail that felt essential to keep) creates a pearlescent glow reminiscent of mica flakes in clay or the shimmer of wet sand. Little gifts from the earth and sea, held in your hands.

These paintings can, of course, be collected individually. If you do, place them somewhere special—beside your grandmother’s jewelry box, on a beloved bookshelf, or atop a quiet corner of your desk.
But as squares, they also come alive in pairs, trios, or sets of four, arranged like handmade tiles on the wall.

There are only seven Tiny Treasures remaining.
If one is calling to you—if your inner child collector is tugging at your sleeve—I invite you to bring a piece home before the collection disappears.

Shop the remaining Tiny Treasures by Click Below!