I thought this was going to be relatively simple painting but the pink flowers were a little troublesome as the process was to paint a white flower then add some pink over it. As the darker pink on its own was not opaque enough to stand out on the black background.

The green leaves were a challenge to paint with a delicate look to them and the vines equally as challenging to make them thin and flowing.

I really love painting butterflies in Gouache as its easy to achieve the powdery look. I do this by painting the main colours then almost having a dry brush drag some white across the paper leaving little random white specks of paint.

This seems to replicate the dusty powdery wings they seem to have.

Ok I’m really over painting these little pink and white flowers and its almost discouraging seeing how many I still have to go. I’m generally a patient person but sometimes hundreds of pink flowers must be my limit so I put the artwork aside for a few days.

Yes its like everything else, sometimes you just don’t feel like painting and I have to focus on something else.

So to get back in the swing of things I started painting a few butterflies and this is when the painting really started to come alive. My frown turned into a smile and I was once again happy and focused.

More butterflies were added as I sourced a few more of my photos. Just to make it a little more interesting I added a super tinny ladybug and some more dreaded pink flowers.

At this stage the painting was almost complete but I still wanted to add a little more life so a bee was added and a white moth.

Looking at the painting it wasn’t quite balanced so I added some more pink flowers on the vine to the top left hand corner of the painting.

Framed up and ready for the exhibition, still deciding if this painting will go up for sale as my mother likes it so much. I think sometimes is good to keep some of my artwork in the family since my mother has a connection to butterflies, and well its mum.