Showing posts with label monarch butterfly painting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label monarch butterfly painting. Show all posts

Monday, January 30, 2012

Sitting Pretty Monarch Butterfly

Another month has slipped by and I'm not really sure where all the time went. I've been working on some new canvases and making some changes in my marketing as well. The above is entitled "Sitting Pretty" and is a monarch butterfly painted against an abstract background. I'm in the process of painting some spring and summer themes at the moment and hope to finish up with those soon.

I love painting butterflies, all kinds of course but my favorites are the Monarchs. I find myself drawn to them again and again and somehow, they always seem to end up on my canvas.

All year I review butterfly photos that I've taken in the spring and summer to decide which beauties to paint. If you love to paint nature subjects, I highly recommend running around with your camera to capture your favorites on film, they will provide you with inspiration all year long.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Monarchs Emerging - Acrylic Quadtych

Has it really been almost a month since I last blogged?? I cannot believe it, where am I....what have I been doing....why did I wait, am I still alive?? All good questions, I've just been here, in the studio, alive, painting away and maybe, I don't know , carried away too because I was shocked to see how long it has been since I last posted. I'll have to pay a lot more attention next time.
Some people have wardrobe malfunctions, technical problems, you name it, depending of course on what profession they happen to be in. Me, I've had a camera man problem. In other words, the guy behind the camera, the one that usually takes my painting photos (aka Chris) has been really busy these days and so we just got down to work today, taking some photos of paintings that have been waiting very patiently to be photographed.


This is one of my latest paintings......"Monarchs Emerging" paying tribute to my favorite butterflies, perched on an apple blossom tree.


This piece is made up of 4 canvases, each 1 1/2" deep and measuring a total of 18"h x 25" w. Two canvases that measure 8"h x 8" w and 2 that measure 6"h x 4" w.


I've also just learned about the concept of measuring my paintings to include the negative space. Not just what the pieces measure if you just push them together but measuring them as they are displayed, with the exact amount of space inbetween each panel and the whole display being taken into consideration for the total measurment. I must have seemed dim as this concept was explained to me because it took me quite a while to get it, the measuring stick and I have never been great friends.....give me a ruler and I can miss measure quite a lot of things, draw a straight line.......are you kidding, can others really achieve that with a straight ruler?? Anyway, all kidding aside, Celebrations Gallery put me onto the concept of measuring properly ,who knew, you learn something new everyday if you pay attention.


I hope you like this piece. It has to be one of my favorites. Although, anything I paint with this species of butterfly is a favorite, also, any painting that any other artist paints with the beautiful Monarch always captures my attention as well so, maybe I need to GET REAL, I just plain old, love painting these butterflies!! I am however , really getting into the concept of using multiple canvases of different sizes in my work. I think this is a very sculptural look on the wall, something I'm really enjoying exploring. It is very creative, challenging and most of all, fun to lay out the designs on pieces like this.


I'm in the process of closing my Ruby Lane shop and will instead be hosting my canvas work on ETSY.... www.artfulcreations.etsy.com . This piece and others to come soon will all be listed there. That may be another reason I've been MIA the last few weeks, opening a new shop seems to take forever, which I never seem to realize before I start doing it. It is still not done but as some what of an optimist, I will refer to it as a work in progress.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

In The Treetop & A Winged Beauty

This week I have been working on some smaller paintings......8" x 8" , 1 1/2" deep gallery canvases.
This little guy on the colorful and very happy background is "In The Treetop" which I think fits him just perfectly. I had a blast working on the background and loved the technique so much that I'm considering using it on a larger painting in the future.
"Winged Beauty" is of course another Monarch butterfly. I seem to be on a roll with these floating beauties lately, I'm really enjoying painting them.
For this background my goal was "earthy" and I think the colors and textures worked out just great for what I was tryiing to achieve. I would consider using this on a larger painting as well but I'm not sure yet, it was a tough background to achieve and even more so to paint on. Time will tell I suppose!
I hope you like the newest nature inspired paintings..........ENJOY!!!

Monday, June 28, 2010

"Monarchy" - Acrylic Butterfly Painting

I just finished my latest painting the other day....."Monarchy" dedicated to my favorite and certainly the royalty of the butterfly family............the monarch.
First I started with an idea and a sketch. Rather then draw directly onto the canvas, I prefer taping together several sheets of tracing paper and drawing my design on that, then transferring it to the canvas.


The background is a bright and vivid sky with whimsical circles to finish it out nicely. All three of my butterflies are perched on Apple Blossom branches and each one is painted with lots of attention to detail .



I tried to give each butterfly its own look and pose with the uppermost monarch being the center of attention on this painting. This piece measures a very large 36" h x 24" w and is painted on 1 1/2" deep gallery canvas with the sides painted black so it needs no frame.



I have to admit I've been enjoying some poetry lately and I found this pretty one about the butterfly:


BUTTERFLY


Flutter by,

Butterfly,

Floating flower in the sky.

Kiss me with your petal wings--

Whisper secrets, tell of spring.


Author Unknown



Hope you enjoy this new painting and get to see some butterflies in your own garden today. Available at . www.artfulcreations.etsy.com

Monday, May 24, 2010

"Monarch".......Plus A Blog Break

I just completed my newest garden painting............. "Monarch".
This painting was inspired by the photos I took last year at Mohonk Mountain House, poised at the verbena patch with my camera in hand, I was ready to catch all the action.



Each panel is 6" x 8" for a total size of 8" x 12". Painted on gallery canvas, the sides measure 1 1/2" deep.
It may have been my first monarch painting but not my last, I'm currently working on a very large piece featuring these lovely butterflies.
On that note, I'll be flying away myself for a while, time for a blog break for me so I can complete some new pieces that I have in the works. See you when I return. This piece is available in my ETSY shop: www.artfulcreations.etsy.com