Butterfly Inspiration!

As you can see I love butterflies, moths & insects; in fact the natural world in general is my constant inspiration. It is just over 2 years ago that my work began to focus particularly on bugs.
I was taking part in a local art & craft fair called Art Bazaar, the organisers ran an award called The People's Choice. Here visitors to the event voted for their favourite stand. I was lucky enough to win and as part of the prize I had the opportunity for a solo exhibition at Barnstaple's Atelier Gallery.


The brief was that this had to showcase a completely new body of work. I had previously concentrated on landscapes and flowers so where to go next?

Well a visit to Exeter's Royal Albert Museum solved the problem. The collection had recently been revamped and the highlight for me was the butterfly room. Instead of the slightly, rigid Victorian style display of impaled specimens on long pins, these butterflies appeared to still be flying. The gorgeous creatures were captured under Perspex and surrounded you! There was my inspiration.

So I began to fill sketchbooks with images and photographs. One thing I did know was that all my pieces would involve my favourite fabric, silk.