One last flight - Orchid butterfly. Orchidarium - swan song for butterflies-orchids As a child I never found orchids so interesting, all the woman in my family loved them and orchids were everywhere. As a child I was turned off by the pink colour, my colours were blue, dark violet and green, so I loved bluebells and wild flowers. But then I reconsidered, looking closer orchids are wild marvels from another time, their petals carry the echo of prehistory. In the new home, we inherited a vase of small pink-white orchids, and I was astonished by looking at them blooming and withering. Orchids are fleshy, strong, and inspiring: When orchids are alive and fresh, the form and relative size of the petals reminds of oneiric images of birds flying free. When they start to dry, orchids can look like new born baby embraced by the petals, still with a umbilical cord attached. I have painted this subject with onion and coffee ink, and posted about it in May 2023. But when orchids are dry and dead, the same petals remind of the wings of dead butterflies or mosquitos reunited in a scientific collection. When dried, the lack of water make orchids acquire a golden hue, the petals become thinner, more wrinkled and lose their fleshy quality. From wild, through aging, orchids become frail, yellow, wrinkled, thinner and semi transparent. From birds, old orchids turn into insects, their wings bent and crumpled. So, as a good naturalistic collector, I made my own imaginary butterfly collections of dry orchids. I collected the dried orchids which were dying from our plant for over a month, circa 3-4 weeks, and I framed them as if making a butterfly collection. And then of course I have painted them, you can see the result on the top of this post. I painted the whole collection or orchids-butterflies, as if it will be part of a painted cabinet of curiosity, representing rare naturalistic beauties. And then I focused on one single flower, which from a certain angle, really looked like having a butterfly body. Here you can see some of the phases of the paintings: Our tuxedo friend Khorne was keeping me company while taking a nap in the process ;)
These paintings were created for Spinderihallerne and the exhibition we are organizing together for June 2024. I used organic colors made by ourselves with onions, cranberries, and coffee. Thank you for stopping by Bertie xxx
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AuthorFreelance illustrator and painter. Archives
May 2023
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