“Butterfly Garden #1″ – 36″ x 48” oil on canvas – $3,200
I love painting the forests, rivers and coast of Oregon and Washington, but sometimes a change of scenery will jump-start my creativity. One of the best places for this is in Victoria, BC.
Of course, one of my favorite spots to visit is the Butchart Gardens in Brentwood Bay, but I don’t feel inclined to paint it as much as just to enjoy the color and compositions that their master gardeners already created.
The place that really inspires me to paint is the nearby Butterfly Garden. With its tropical jungle effect, wild life in the form of turtles, frogs, birds, fish and about 6,000 free-flying butterflies, the creative energy emitted is nearly over-whelming.
The tropical plants, most of them with large, patterned leaves give me so many ideas for compositions and, although butterflies are not my usual images, they are fun to paint too. I also did one painting which included the large white bird that likes to pose for tourists.
The koi pool with very large koi and many other types of small fish have inspired several paintings for me. Their energy and gorgeous colors are hard to resist.
The painting above is from my “Butterfly Garden” series.
