Pests II: Clover Flower & Japanese Beetles

This is my second submission for the Art of the Garden exhibition at Haverford Public Library.  A percentage of all artwork sales goes to library funding.

Pests II : Clover Flower and Japanese Beetles, watercolor, acrylic & graphite on wood, 12 x 12", 2011.

The theme of this whole project for me is to make something that is often overlooked or even hated seem beautiful.   I really liked the way the wood stained on this one, so I left a lot of empty space for it to show through.


Here is my preliminary drawing:

Pests II : Preliminary Drawing, graphite on bristol, 12 x 12", 2011. 

You can definitely see all the eraser marks... I changed the position of the beetles a lot before the final transfer onto wood.

And here's a close-up:

The first "pests" painting was blogged about here.  There's one more coming, so check back soon!

PS:  Does anyone actually really like Japanese Beetles? I think they're kind of annoying because they fly right into you at a billion miles per hour (that's a scientific fact!)