Green Wings

Everywhere is very green and lush with all the rain we have had.  The tall cow parsley is shoulder height along the lanes and looking beautiful.  The fields are full of thick grass and filled with yellow buttercups and white dog daisies.  Many of the village hedgerows have been cut back as the fast growing wild flowers hang over the narrow roads and make them look even narrower and harder for cars to pass.  The verges  are home to many plants  and then when the space is needed they get cut down too.  I like to see all  the wild flowers and then the butterflies and insects are attracted to the colours and scents.  The honeysuckle and the Elderflower are both welcome sights as they are now flowering in the hedgerows.

I had been to see my sister and we wandered through her garden  I admired all her flowers which always attract beautiful butterflies.   She told me a dragonfly had flown into her conservatory on Sunday, she sees lots over the summer because of the pond and stream at the end of her garden.  Then I was given this butterfly which she had found dead in the conservatory,  as she knew I would draw it.  It is quite small and has  pale yellow and white wings with green  lines.  On the way home the wind was really picking up and it looked like a storm was heading our way.  The trees were catching the strong breeze and the little green sycamore wings were being blown off the branches.  I picked some up off the road,  and found I had collected a triple one.  So when I arrived home they ended up on my page together.... Green wings on the butterfly and green sycamore wings.

I drew the delicate butterfly in pencil first and then again a little larger to add the colours.  I painted it using a number 4 sable brush and  my acrylic inks with sap green, yellow ochre, and white to mix the colours.  I also used a little red with the sap green for the sycamore wings.

  I looked up the butterfly in Collins Butterfly Guide and it is a "Green veined white".  I hope to see lots more colourful butterflies during Summer in my sisters garden.  I will take my sketch book to show her the butterfly.   It is raining non stop here, everything will be growing and I guess it will be even greener and the grass even taller.

   I have visited a garden centre this week and bought some new plants,  two new peonies and some Lavenders,  and  geraniums for the pots at my door. I am going to be gardening when the rain stops and hopefully spend lots of summer days outside and sit and enjoy the views across the estuary.  Hope you all have a lovely weekend.
Thank you for the comments which I love to read.                                                        Millyx