Painting: “Marbled Turbo”

“Marbled Turbo” by Leo Jahaan.
Oil on canvas, 2014.
100 cm x 120 cm.

“Marbled Turbo” is based on a diagram of a type of sea shell known as ‘Turbo Marmoratus’, originally published in 1856. In past centuries ‘Conchology’, the study of mollusc shells, was an extremely popular past-time. Each shell was of course once the exoskeleton of a living creature. These shells obtain their name from their resemblance to spinning tops, which are named ‘turbo’ in Latin.