Moths in Flight

Here's your science lesson for the day.

What's the difference between butterflies and moths?

Butterflies:

- have slender antennae with clubbed tips

- hold wings vertically at rest

- fly by day. 

Moths:

-have feathery/thick antennae

-rest with wings flat or tent-like

-are mostly nocturnal.

I've been listening to a podcast lately called Ologies.  This one is with a lepidopterologist who studies, of course, lepidopterology. If you listen to this one you'll learn everything you ever wondered about butterflies & moths and everything you didn't even know you could wonder about butterflies & moths.  Then the next time you're at trivia night and the question is, "What do you call the study of butterflies & moths?" you can quickly jot "lepidopterology" on your slip and turn that in with confidence!

My Weekly-ish Challenge came from our little box of cards.

My moths fit beautifully into the subject: "Symmetry" and the color: "Earthy."

For the wildcard, however, we changed the rule (as we've been known to do!) from 20 minutes to 1 day.

Original Oil Painting on 6"x 12" Wrapped Canvas

Click Moths in Flight if you'd like to purchase this painting.

Fairy & Butterfly

I LOVE this little fairy and her butterfly friend!

It took me several days to come up with an idea for this one.  My Weekly-ish Challenge partner gave the challenge of "Garden Boots" this time.  Garden Boots??? What was I going to do with that?! 

I wrestled with it... looked for interesting photos of garden boots online... found photos of me wearing my pink boots in my garden... saw lots of images of garden boots used as flower pots... 

Nothing stuck... I sat on it a few more days, glad for the "ish" in our Weekly-ish Challenge.

Then I found this cute little statue. It's only 2"-3" tall and meant as a decoration in a potted plant.

I love it when I am completely blank for a painting idea then a random muse shows up with a fabulous idea that works.

Someone should really write a children's story about this little garden fairy and her friend the butterfly. I have so many questions about this image that I want answered!! Who is this fairy? Does she have a name? Where does she live? Does she know the butterfly?  Why does she wear boots? Is the butterfly okay? Do they realize they both wear the same colors? Do they communicate with each other? Will they fly together?

Original Acrylic Painting on 8"x 10" Canvas Board

Click Fairy & Butterfly if you'd like to purchase this little painting.

Choose Joy

I've been dreading doing this painting for a while.

When I first started painting back in February of 2007, I never ever dreamed that I'd do as many as 100 paintings. But... I just kept painting another then another then another.

Eventually I had to change my numbering system so that each painting number had three digits. And... I kept on painting.

I got to #500 and did a self portrait.  I got to #600 and did another self portrait.  Then I got to 660 and thought, "Yikes... I'm getting close to that dreaded number with all the sixes."  I finished painting #665 and knew what I was going to do for #667, but what to do between??? Skip it? Paint a canvas black? I knew I wouldn't want to sell it.

When I was spending some time with my sister, we were talking about personal mantras.  She and I both love "Choose Joy!" or "Today I Choose Joy!"  That's about as positive and opposite of the painting's sequence number as it can be.   

Perhaps I'll let this one dry then wrap it up and send it to her.  It will be a nice surprise. (Unless, she reads my blog, then she'll be watching for it.)

Original Oil Painting on 6"x 8" Wrapped Canvas
[GIFT]

Butterfly on Dogwood

We built our house in 2001 and moved in the week of 9/11/2001... (I know... easy/hard date to remember.) Of course, a few trees had to come down in the building process, but we wanted to save as many as possible.

The builder said, "There's a scraggly tree in the back that got pretty scuffed up.  We can take it down or you can wait and see if it survives. It might it a year or so." We decided to leave it.  What a treat that next spring to discover that it was a dogwood!  Even being scruffy and scuffed up, it did survive!

For two decades our little backyard dogwood blessed us with beautiful white blossoms in early spring, a ground-covering snow shower of white petals in late spring, shade in the summer,  red leaves in the fall, and cardinals at the feeder in winter.

Every winter we wondered if it would make it another year. 

When spring of 2022 came, there was something different... 

No tiny green leaves... no white blossoms...

Our scruffy little dogwood tree had finally given up.

Thank you for 21 years of blooms, Scruffy Little Dogwood Tree!

My weekly-ish challenge this time was "Yellow & White." That was a good opportunity to paint this sweet image of a yellow swallowtail on some white dogwood blossoms.

Original Oil Painting on 6"x 8" Wrapped Canvas

[SOLD]

Swallowtail on Butterfly Weed

In this day and age of constant disagreement, surely one thing we can all agree on is that we're lucky to have butterflies in our world. 

My weekly-ish art challenge was "Flutter & Flit."  This butterfly helped me meet the challenge. 

As soon as this little painting is dry, it will be on its way to The Netherlands for an art exchange that I'm a part of.  I can't wait to see what comes here in return!

Original Oil Painting on 5"x 7" Canvas Board

[ART EXCHANGE]

Thistles & Butterflies

In early September we went for our first day trip since the beginning of COVID-19. 

Staying mostly on rural roads, we left NW Arkansas... drove down Western Oklahoma... crossed into and over the Ouachita Mountains ... circled through my hometown... made our way back up to our home in the Ozark Mountains.

I love the Ouachitas.  I grew up right  in the middle of them.

The Talimena Scenic Highway is the best way to view them from the top.

Beautiful, I know.

But, what does this have to do with the painting?

The Talimena Scenic Highway has many pullouts or overlooks so that cars can stop and people can enjoy the view.  Of course I had my camera so I could take pictures of that view; however, I got distracted every single time.  At every stop, the ground was covered with thistles, and the thistles were covered with butterflies. I think I ended up taking about five photos of the mountaintop views and 50 photos of the thistles and butterflies.

The word for the weekly painting challenge with my art mentor Cheri was "lavender."  I went through several ideas for what I might paint, then I remembered these gorgeous lavender-colored thistles. Since we're making the rules up as we go, I decided that thistles would be the perfect response for "lavender."

Original Oil Painting on 8"x 10" Canvas Board, Framed

[SOLD]

Indian Paintbrush and Butterflies Triptych

I've been wanting to do another triptych for a while, and this seemed to be the perfect opportunity.

The Indian paintbrush is a pretty little flower... although it's not very showy on its own.  Even though it's a little scraggly and spiky so that you're not sure whether it's a pretty weed or a pitiful flower, I wanted it to be the main character, the most beautiful, the focus of the piece.   The butterflies think Indian paintbrush flowers are gorgeous.  They're fluttering around to help us as we celebrate the beauty of the Indian paintbrush.

This is the third of four painting for the bedrooms of Welcome Home Retreat. 
The first was for the Bluebonnet Room.
The second was for the Primrose Room.
Actually there's another.  A while back I did this one for the tiny private room, the Wisteria Room.


Original Oil Painting Triptych on 8"x 10", 10"x 10", 8"x 10"
[SOLD]

Magical Moment

There is something almost magical about a butterfly's visit.  It's nearly impossible not to stop... watch... appreciate... smile...

My friend, Sandra, felt that this particular swallowtail's visit was like a gift.  You can read her whole experience on her blog post. 

Here is some of what she wrote:

"... this gorgeous being floated quite literally into my view, hanging around... and letting me get so close to her...  it was magical and moving."

Beautiful butterfly... Beautiful Flowers... Beautiful words...

Original Oil Painting on 10"x 10" Wrapped Canvas
[SOLD]

Yellow Butterfly in Some Pink Daisies

How come the paintings that should be simple sometimes aren't?
Hmph!

This little painting was supposed to be a little in-between one.  
I was going to begin it one evening then finish it the next day or so. 
Bah!

I did the background...then changed it completely... 
I blocked in the flowers...  then re-painted them... 
I added the butterfly... finished it... re-did it... finished it again...
Ugh!

It looked fake... something was missing...
I put in some grass...
Nope...

The flowers were good, the butterfly was good, the background was good...
But nothing went together.  
It looked like I'd painted them separately then cut them out and glued them together! Besides that, it looked like a painting about pink flowers that just happened to have a yellow butterfly on them instead of a painting about a yellow butterfly sitting on pink flowers.
Hugh Sigh!

Like it was a misbehaving child, I decided to ignore it... 
Walk away... just walk away... 

Finally I added a little more grass... highlighted the flowers... messed up all the perfect lines on the butterfly... took out one big flower completely... put a glaze on part of the background... and... finally signed my name.

And all that for little bitty 6"x 8"  canvas!
Sheesh!

I like it though. 😁


Original Oil Painting on 6"x 8" Wrapped Canvas
[SOLD]

Spring Monarch

How many monarchs have you seen this spring?

I've seen several.  That makes me happy because I've heard that their populations are diminishing rapidly.  They need those weeds that we're all so quick to mow down.  So, next time you think it's time to get the weed eater out for the edges of your lawn, don't !  "I'm saving butterflies!" sounds like a great excuse not to do that chore!

As I was painting this little monarch, I couldn't help but be reminded of an old church stained glass window - sun gleaming off those sections of color between the black outlines.  Beautiful!

A big thanks to Nicole for capturing this image.  I'm glad you didn't weed eat down your joe-pye weeds so that this butterfly would have a reason to stop by your farm!

Enjoy this piece in an Etsy treasury (collection of related vintage items and art pieces) celebrating Nature-themed Artwork. 

If you'd like to purchase this little painting, click Spring Monarch.

Sunflower Swallowtail

Where do you get your painting inspiration?

I love to paint what I love, and I love what I see around my own home.  I grew a row of sunflowers at the back of my garden last year.  They were gorgeous.  One day this little butterfly danced, flitted, and posed as long as I was willing to take pictures.  So, I had 30 photos... all nearly the same... to choose from.  I loved this one because the little butterfly opened up and showed off his beautiful wings.

So what will be next?

This is what I saw from my porch yesterday...

[SOLD]

Sunflowers & Butterfly

How do you decide which reference photo is just right?


This is a question I asked on the post from August 28th.  I finally chose this one.  I chose it because I thought the sunflower in the background showed that there was more to the scene.  I also loved the angle of the sunflower.  It showed the three-dimensional parts of the sunflower's center.  There was also something graceful about the leaves that I loved.  And finally, not seeing the full face of the sunflower allowed the butterfly to be the star of the show.  


So, I began painting right away.  Then I got distracted... by the beginning of school... by a commissioned piece, I Am the Legacy... by a really good book, The Help... by a challenge painting for RookiePainter...  a Christmas painting of the same little boy from Little Boy in a Big Fedora...  more school work... and all the time this painting sat half finished on my cedar chest showing a lovely background, some stems and leaves and half a butterfly.  It is very hard to go back to finish a painting after a time.  But, I finally did.  And I'm glad I did.\

[SOLD]

:) Choosing a Reference Photo

How to decided.... How to choose?...


This little butterfly danced, flitted, and posed as long as I was willing to take pictures.  So, I have 30 photos... All nearly the same, but which ONE is the right ONE?