GIANT Yellow Swallowtails

I am an avid gardener....did I say avid?  I meant virtual!  And as a virtual gardener, I love the creatures that are attracted to a blooming garden.  You know I have asked several outstanding garden photogs if I could paint from their work and once again I share two pieces from the blog of Meems at Hoe and Shovel.

These are Giant Yellow Swallowtails, male and female, sneaking around the red penta blooms.

Meems has a wonderful way of catching her subjects mid-flight which is wonderful

but can pose a problem for the artist.

This is the showy male.  He is rendered in pencil on a 6" x 6" prepared board.  The backgrounds are done first in acrylic which I like to treat as watercolor....mushing it all around to see what abstract looks I can get before getting serious and detailed with the pencils.

Here's the female, not as vibrant but all a'flutter as she sips her morning breakfast.  I did these so they could hang side by side (at the same bush if you will).  Or in a narrow space in a vertical format.

I hate to think of them as a broken pair (maybe they weren't even married to start with); but I will sell them separately if they are not taken together first.  You can check them out HERE if you have a home for them.