Canvasbutterfly

Canvasbutterfly started life as a collection of drawings and paintings. Prints of some of the original paintings are available to purchase either as unframed prints or framed pictures.

 

Canvasbutterfly combines my love for drawing and painting with a real passion for my subject matter. I care about our environment and nature conservation. To that end I am proud to say that Butterfly Conservation UK sold my prints and cards on their own online shop throughout 2014-2016.

 

Lets go back to the very beginning before I even realised that I would be drawing and painting insects.

 

I had studied at Salisbury College of Art prior to meeting my husband Iain. For many years Iain and I raised our three children and in that time I had not dabbled in anything creative other than for and with the children.

One Summer after such a long period of not drawing and painting I had a strong desire to produce some artwork. I bought a medium sized canvas as I had the idea that I would paint something uplifting to hang on our lounge wall.

I had always loved butterflies so they seemed a natural subject choice for my first painting. It was Summer time and I enjoyed being outside drawing my initial sketches and ideas. How this intial painting influenced me to develop Canvasbutterfly is in the 'About' section.

 

 

People have frequently asked the question 'Why butterflies?'

So I tried to go back as far as I could remember to where my love and indeed fascination began. As a child my family travelled to quite a few places moving every two to three years as my father was an Officer with the British Army. Most of our postings were within the UK but when I was five years of age we flew out to Cyprus where we were to live for the next three years.

My father was keen on nature and in particular he liked ornithology. I can remember going out with him into the many beautiful lush fields so close to our home. I would be crouched quietly in the grasses as he watched with his binoculars. I had my own pair of binoculars too, but so often I would be occupied spying the insect life all around me and especially exciting were sightings of butterflies and dragonflies.

 

We came back to the UK in the Spring of 1970, our home for the next two years was to be in central London.

I can remember being taken to the Natural History Museum for the first time. I had never seen anything like it before. I was enthralled by the insect cases more than anything else. The row upon row of gleaming, shinny beautiful insects captured my imagination and I was hooked.

 

Another passion of mine is searching out beautiful and meaningful quotes; I know that I am not alone in this as once you get involved with Pinterest you see just how popular quotes such as these are.

From an early age I had a love for poetry, even writting my first poem at the tender age of five. I turned to writing poetry more frequently as I reached my early teens and it has continued as an intermittent thread throughout my adult life.

 

 

 

I wanted to put my own slant on some very well know quotes and others that I have written myself. Using my artwork to embelish the quotes like a floral frame has worked very well. Digital downloads are now available of these in my shop.

 

So that explains where my love for these creatures first came from. Poetry and art are both close to my heart. The background to the home page is a poem that I wrote when I was fifteen, and this image is a photograph taken of me on the very same day that I wrote it.

 

From my desire to produce an image that I could hang on my own wall Canvasbutterfly has grown. I went on to spend the whole Summer of 2012 drawing and painting butterflies. In the first few months of 2013 I added a couple of dragonflies closely followed by bees and bumble bees to the 'Canvasbutterfly Collection'.

In early 2014 I decided to paint a few more of our native butterflies and added some well know garden moths. In early 2015 I concentrated on three butterflies who had captured many hearts, the very endangered Duke of Burgundy, Large Blue and the Swallowtail Britannicus which was being sighted a little more frequently than in previous years although still mainly only in the East of England.

 

 2016 brought my Creature Doodles to life, with the first few being very well recieved I went on to make a few pocket mirrors at the tail end of the year. Currently there are sixteen Creature Doodle images eleven of which are available as greeting cards. I intend to add to their number annually,  As I complete new paintings they will be gradually added to the selection of images available to purchase. NEW Cards planned for 2020.

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To see my Shop and view the items that are for sale look in Canvasbutterfly Shop in the header.

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