Wildlife Inspiration

 Gatekeeper Butterfly

Photo taken in my garden this morning.

I thought I would share something completely different on my blog. I love photography and spend ages  trying to get just the right shot. Many of my images then lend themselves to my paintings as I am inspired by what I see each day.

In this blog post is a collection of photographs I took first thing this morning. The light was perfect and I followed butterflies and bees around my garden as they nestled on each flower. I am finding the longer I paint the more my thirst for new subjects grows. And my thirst for knowledge. It isn't enough to just paint what I see. I have to know what it is also.

This week I painted a butterfly as a demonstration on my new DVD which will be released later this year. There is also a step by step on how to paint butterflies in the new edition of my first book which is also coming out later this year. I couldn't have painted either without first studying the subject in real life. I am now learning about the different species of butterflies too.

Above is a Gatekeeper butterfly, if anyone knows how it got its name I would love to know!

Below is a Brimstone butterfly nestling on a dahlia. How pretty is this?

 Brimstone butterfly nestling on a dahlia.

Photo taken in my garden this morning.

And I am fascinated by bees. I spent a whole day painting them last year when they distracted me from the flowers I was working on. I just adore them.

Look at this shot below and see what I mean. the colours are gorgeous here!

Beady Eyes, or should I say bee-dy eyes!

Photo taken in my garden this morning.

And here is the recent butterfly painting I worked on which is similar to the demonstration in my new DVD.

"Sunshine on my Wings"

If you wander around my garden it is so easy to see where my ideas come from. They are my own as I paint from life. I paint what I see and aim to capture the colour combinations that fascinate me in nature. How lucky any of us are to have the gift of sight. 

Have a great week ahead and happy painting!

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