The Nautilus Balloon

About this work

The balloon floats in the upper centre, its golden envelope shaped like a nautilus shell, with the spiral chambers showing on its right side. Beneath it hangs a small basket carrying one tiny figure. A long flock of small birds flies around the balloon in a sweeping spiral, and the eye rides that curve. Down below, rolling golden hills stretch away, and in the foreground a large spiral is carved into the golden sand and grass, coiling to a small centre at lower right. So the picture holds three spirals: shell, flock and ground. Gold, ochre and sand sit against a soft sky blue, light and clear. Close up, the separate birds and the carved grooves are easy to follow. From a distance the balloon becomes a bright golden note in open air. The mood is light and optimistic.

The first crewed hot-air balloon flight lifted off over Paris in November 1783, and for a while ballooning was the most astonishing sight of the age. Floating without wings still feels a little like a dream, which is why balloons suit surrealism so well. The movement, which grew from the 1920s, liked to cross one thing with another until the result looked strangely natural, just as a shell becomes an envelope here. The spirals echo the golden-ratio curve linked to 1.618 and to the Fibonacci numbers, where each term is the sum of the two before. Similar spirals appear in sunflower heads, snail shells and the curl of a breaking wave.

It brings a lift to a nursery, a child's bedroom or a sunny kitchen, and freshens a living room with pale walls. Soft sky blue, sand, buttery cream and white walls all suit it well. A light oak or white frame keeps the mood airy, and a slim gold frame picks up the envelope. Bright natural daylight shows its clear sky at its best. Beside a cot or above a small desk, 40 × 60 cm is plenty; above a sofa, choose larger. It sits happily next to The Nautilus Tower, with its own white shell, and The Galaxy Doorway for a dreamier wall. The file prints sharply to roughly 91 cm on the long edge at 300 dpi.