Butterfly - end of summer

 

Several weeks ago I started painting the visitors to the flowers that inspire me to paint. That resulted in two paintings with bumble bees and a question to my daughter for reference pictures of butterflies (as these are not waiting for a picture to be made using my phone). She sent me some beautiful pictures to begin with and this one inspired me very much.

This beautiful butterfly (Vanessa atalanta) is not on a flower, but surrounded by dry, fallen leaves as happens in the end of summer, when the trees are already losing their foliage because of heat and drought.

Using the reference picture (thank you Mariska) I made a composition with the butterfly ant the leaf it was sitting on and surrounded them with leaves from the picture, but not exactly as was shown in the reference. 

I took great care to make the leaves look fallen and dry and keep the butterfly in the center of attention. Some of the leaves are not as detailed as possible but to my idea this improves the composition of my  painting.

The information about the paper and paint I used, the size and availability of this painting can be found in the link at the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com