Sunflowers and Summer

This is a commissioned piece I just completed for a client. My client, who is the owner of Summer I, incurred some damage to that painting and wanted me to repaint the piece for them. I changed it up a bit and added some new elements. The bold red geraniums and the sun touched sunflowers are still present, but sitting amongst them is a delicate Cloudless Sulphur butterfly, perched atop a geranium; just taking in a few rays. This piece is 48″ x 48″, acrylic on 1 1/2 inch gallery wrapped canvas.

Sunflowers and Gulf Fritillary Butterfly 8 x 8 acrylic on canvas

I am just about finished with my small canvas “Sunflowers and Gulf Fritillary Butterfly”. I have just a little bit of detail work to do, but it is almost there.  I was surprised at the time it took to do this small canvas. From beginning to end it was about a days worth of painting. For some reason, I feel like with such a small canvas, it shouldn’t take that long, but the detail work is time consuming. Oh well, I enjoyed working small and will probably do some more. The star in this painting is the Gulf Fritillary, which is a Brush-footed Butterfly, this family of butterflies is very large with about 3,000 species worldwide. This lovely bright orange member is found primarily in the South.  As I mentioned in a previous blog, the caterpillars of the Gulf Fritillary, love passion flowers. One of these vines in your yard and some nectar flowers will provide a nice habitat for these beauties.