“Place for the pollinators” but where are the pollinators?
Only 3 more days to visit “The significance of Pollinators” at the Summerland Art Gallery. Show comes down on April 20th. You can visit my virtual gallery of the exhibition here: Virtual gallery after April 20th all pieces for sale on my website
Bees, butterflies, moths, beetles, hummingbirds. They all need places to live.
It started with “A Seat at the Table” in 2019 at the Salmon Arm Art Gallery. An exhibition exploring issues around food security.
As a beekeeper I became aware of my presence affecting the bees. This made me aware of looking for bees within my own backyard and noticed that most of the bees I could see were not mine! I started to think about where do these native bees live? Turns out they love dead standing trees and 70% of them live in holes in the ground.
Me and a frame of honey bees.
I wanted to reflect the fractured nature of our landscapes and also highlight the shapes of their homes in the shapes of my canvas. Here my son and husband are helping me. My head dreams up all kinds of ideas but it’s a group effort to make art a reality.
I often create red raw areas on my hands from pulling canvas. It can be a yoga move just getting the canvas on.
Jig saw hopefully misses my thumb…
The fun part…
Look for this bumble bee on fireweed near the bottom of the painting. The bee panels were painted first back in 2019. They had a spring/summer feel to them.
Look for the metalic green sweat bee in the first panel…Sweat bees love human sweat apparently….
Look for the mason bee up high in the holes of dead standing trees. These mason bees are more effective at pollinating fruit trees than honey bees.
The mourning cloak butterfly loves wild rose. These butterfly panels were painted in 2023 and added to the existing landscape I had started in 2019. These panels have an Autumn feeling to them.
Do you remember popping those white berries on the snowberry bush as a kid? Well check one out in the spring, it’s better than TV! so many different kinds of native pollinators love snowberry (and Oregon grape, willow, goldenrod, wild rose,) This is a checkerspot butterfly who’s babies live on snowberry.
The showy Tiger swallow tail butterfly and its beloved willow….
Matching up the old with the new…Question is what will be the next two panels? beetles? hummingbirds? moths? maybe a night time scene….hmmm. I’m hoping one day to fill a room with these all attaching in one great scene.