Home From Horse Sitting

I miss painting from real life.  So I painted in watercolor some roses and other flowers I'd stuck in a jar. The statice (sea lavender) fills up the gaps between the roses nicely. And I love the frilly jacaranda leaves, though they were a challenge to paint.
I did take a bunch of photos to use as art reference material later. I stalked a butterfly for at least an hour and finally got a photo of it.  I'd have loved to have gotten more but it never stayed in one spot for more than a few seconds. I'm lucky I got the one shot I did.  In fact I thought I'd missed it because it flew off as the shutter was moving.  It's late so I'll upload the photos in the morning when my vision isn't blurry.  It's hard to tell if a photo is in focus when my eyes aren't even in focus.

So in the last 3 days I got to do egg tempera, pen & ink and opaque watercolor. And lots of photography. In one photo I captured at least 4 cabbage moths on one plant.  I bet there will be even more insects on it when I see the full size version. The yard was full of bees, butterflies, moths, wasps, and a grasshopper that kept splatting into things. Definitely something wrong with his navigational systems.

Update: I uploaded over 300 photos, and the swallowtail butterfly is gone! I must have erased it or the camera ate it.  I'm so disappointed.