I awake and head outside, anxious to check the flowers. Mother and father bluebird are still feeding their third clutch of young. The herb bed is abloom: agastache, garlic chives, basil (cinnamon and Genovese) and even more flowers on the strawberry fields globe amaranth.
I notice movement -- tens of butterflies all flitting from flower to flower!! Tiger and spicebush swallowtails, monarchs and frittilaries!! They alight on the agastache more than any other flower, though the white blossoms of the garlic chives are a close second!
I go back into the house for my camera to try to capture the dreamlike scene before me! It's like my own butterfly house! I knew their larvae were busy eating my spicebushes to shreds -- and this is the reward! Flying flowers!
My digital camera is just too slow to catch them -- but I settle on a few photos to use for sketches. I outline this butterfly scene from a photo and then use the herbs themselves to sketch and paint from ...
The scent of basil and agastache kept me company as I paint and as the day heated ...
5 comments:
You described and captured this scene so well I thought I was sitting with you enjoying the butterflies and the wonderful fragrance of those flowers.
Oh Lin! You told have shared your story so well, I can smell the herbs on the air! Butterflies are hard to photograph when they are on the move. I love your painting!
I agree with both Teri and Tami, I could almost smell the herbs and feel the warms. (It is very cold here again.)
What a fabulous description of an amazing scene and the painting captures the delight so well. My pathetic little garden gets the occasional butterfly or white moth, but mostly just lots of bugs. How do you find the time to tend the garden, work, paint, care for grands, etc.? Something always has to give, and in my case it's usually gardening, sadly. Also, it's almost always cold, foggy and very windy at my house, so it's not so appealing.
a lovely combination of pictures and text. Yes, how do you find the time ? I bet - grab every little minute?
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