Draw & Paint Monarch Butterflies

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Alabama, art classes, butterflies, colored pencil, drawing, how to draw, painting, Val Webb, watercolor, workshops

I’m delighted to offer a new workshop, “Draw and Paint Monarch Butterflies,” at beautiful 5 Rivers Delta Resource Center on Saturday, January 12. Working from actual specimens, with step-by-step guidance, learn to create a realistic monarch using gouache and colored pencil on handmade buff paper. No experience is necessary and all supplies are provided. Class size is limited to 10. The cost is $65, and illustrated gift certificates are available if you plan to use the workshop as a Christmas gift. Email me to reserve a spot.

Two more things about the workshop: We’ll meet from 10 to 4, so bring a sack lunch to enjoy on the deck during our midday break.

Also, it’s important to me that you know our butterfly specimens were not wild-caught and killed. They were raised from egg to caterpillar to cocoon to adult, allowed to live a natural life and then after they died were carefully collected for our use. Butterfly farming preserves habitat and discourages destructive land use; it can also be helpful in supporting threatened species. Just so you know.

Free as a bird…

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art, birds, botanical art, butterflies, calendar, colored pencil, creativity, drawing, flowers, food, free, gardening, giveaway, illustration, sketchbook, Val Webb

…and just in time for spring planting, here’s my first printable garden calendar page. (I’ll have April ready to post in a few days.) This is my little gift to the world, and I will gladly send a pdf file, as each new page is completed, to anyone who asks. March is ready for you this very minute, so drop me a note at studio@valwebb.com . Enjoy!

Two butterfly tiles

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butterflies, ecology, pottery

Carved raku butterfly tiles by Val Webb - $45

Lately, I’ve been carving butterflies — quite a few of them. It’s fun to try to capture their delicate wing structure and vivid color patterns in clay and glaze… and it’s a humane alternative to beautiful (but very dead) framed butterfly specimens. Early last year, when some entomologists predicted the demise of the world’s monarch population within 50 years, plenty of people were skeptical. Now it seems that this lovely species may have considerably less time remaining: 80 percent of the Oyamel fir trees upon which they overwinter have now been lost to illegal logging in Mexico, and torrential rains may have killed half the migratory population last year. The forecast seems grim.

Want to help the monarchs out? You can, in three simple ways:

Plant milkweed. Monarch butterflies only lay their eggs on milkweed plants, and native milkweeds are increasingly rare. If you’re not sure where to find seeds in your area, there are some great sources online who can provide seeds and advice for milkweeds that will thrive in your climate zone.

Avoid pesticide use on your lawn and garden.  Chemicals in pesticides can drift, and are harmful to monarch caterpillars and adults.

 Eat organic foods. Glyphosate herbicides, routinely sprayed on corn and soybean crops in the United States, play a major role in monarch population loss. (And they aren’t good for you, either.)

They’re small steps, but important ones. And they can help ensure that your great-grandchildren will get to see migrating monarchs.

The iris and the swallowtail

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botanical art, butterflies, flowers, pottery, raku, Val Webb

Remember the Lousiana iris I was carving into a slab of raku clay a while back? It’s all finished now… just in time to make its public debut at the opening of the Entre’ Arts studio/cafe/gallery tomorrow night.

Making a mark

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art, butterflies, drawing, gardening, illustration, Val Webb

Once in a while, an art commission comes along that becomes an unexpected source of great enjoyment. The drawing process takes on a life of its own, and I feel almost like a spectator as the image takes shape on the paper. That’s what happened recently, and here is the result. I haven’t done a pencil portrait in years, so it was fun to watch this one unfold.

Meanwhile, in the garden, I’m slowly working my way through the not-so-enjoyable process of clearing the summer beds. Over the next couple of weeks — working in the early mornings, before the mercury reaches those stifling 90s — we’ll spade up the soil to loosen and aerate it, then add a layer of compost from the bin.  The winter garden is my favorite.

…And, in the rapidly dwindling fennel patch, 25 fat Eastern Swallowtail larvae are munching, munching, munching the days away. Click here to see how far they’ve come in four short days!

Botanical Watercolor class at Space 301

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art, botanical art, butterflies, drawing, flowers, gardening, illustration, painting, Val Webb, watercolor

Beginning September 22, you can spend your Tuesday evenings happily painting Mobile Bay area plant life (and maybe a butterfly or two) in vivid color and detail. My eight-week Botanical Watercolor course at Space 301  downtown will meet weekly from 6:30 to 8:30 pm, and will include one Saturday field drawing day at a date to be selected by the class.

No previous art experience is necessary… we’ll explore step-by-step scientific illustration techniques in a relaxed, encouraging atmosphere. Develop your powers of observation while using washes, dry brush and glazing. Mix colors to create depth with light and shadow. You’ll never see plants in quite the same way again…

There is a modest supply list for the class – under $20 – and tuition for 8 weeks is $110 (It’s $95 for members of Centre for the Living Arts) .

Fore more information, email education coordinator Cindy Phillips at space301@cityofmobile.org

Caterpillar chronicles

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art, butterflies, drawing, gardening, journal, nature, sketchbook, Val Webb, watercolor

Butterfly Days

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butterflies, drawing, food, gardening, green living, local food, sustainability

There was a beautiful Eastern Black Swallowtail in the fennel patch yesterday. This morning, the herb’s tender green shoots were peppered with tiny butterfly eggs. The little orbs are pale yellow now, but they will turn black just before they hatch into small caterpillars. In several stages, these fast-growing creatures will pass through increasingly vivid color patterns — all the while steadily consuming an impressive quantity of fennel, parsley and dill. Individuals lucky enough to avoid hungry wasps will eventually transform into a chrysalis and, finally, something that looks a lot like this:

 (c)2009 Val Webb

Meanwhile, we have defaulted to our usual steamy south Alabama late-summer gardening schedule. Manual labor is now limited to really, really early in the morning. We’re prepping beds for fall planting, checking our saved seed and picking those die-hard eggplant and peppers… and some scrumptious ambrosia canteloupe that the Perfect Man incorporated into an experiment in edible landscaping.

Summer is also canning time. Last week, it was green tomato chow-chow… and this week, it was blueberry jam. The hardest part is not opening the jars immediately and devouring the carefully preserved contents. It’s a treat to live with a man who has impressive food preservation skills! (Here’s a tip for any guys out there who might be contemplating an online dating service: just be sure your profile includes the fact that you’re inordinately fond of Mason jars and pressure cookers, and then stand back.)

On the drawing table: Gulf fritillary

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art, botanical art, butterflies, drawing, flowers, gardening, illustration, watercolor

Almost finished, here's a portrait of my garden visitor

There’s a fritillary free-for-all going on out in the flower garden. Bright and busy, at least a dozen Gulf fritillaries are out there all day long. They don’t seem to mind the heat, as long as there’s plenty of nectar to go around.

Here’s the sketch I started out with:

Tutorial: Tips on drawing a butterfly

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art, butterflies, creativity, drawing, illustration, painting

Happy drawing!