Saving the Bees

For Christmas I was given a collection of fabulous gift collection from Neal's Yard Remedies from their 'Bee Lovely and Help Save the Bees' collection. This was the inspiration for me to delve into my sketchbook notes from last summer and begin painting our much loved bees. It was good to get back to painting on vellum again after a long break. The days are lengthening and thoughts turn to getting back into the garden, and during the darker days when detailed painting is impossible I have been gleaning seed catalogues, finding seeds to attract bees, butterflies and other insects into my garden. So far my list includes: Aquilegia (which I am particularly looking forward to painting; so we will share these), Comfrey, Echium vulgare, Digitalis purpurea, Globe artichoke, Lupin, Phacelia tenacetifolia (Purple tansy) - if you've not come across this before I recommend it highly; it is very easy to grow, and has gorgeous pale violet fluffy flowers, Knautia (knapweed) and then of course all the wonderful herbs: Thyme, Sage, Mint, etc . . . I look forward to sowing these in large swathes filling gaps in flower beds to make the journey made by bees especially worthwhile. I will also encourage native flowers to spread, rejoicing in the imperfect lawn; clover and daisies in particular.

This painting is on vellum and is in a vintage Italian gilt frame, which I found on my travels. As the frame is preloved by it's very nature it will have slight imperfections. I thought it suited the scale of this little painting perfectly. The frame is 12cm long (5 inches) by 11.25cm wide (4.5 inches. The image size is 6cm x 5cm (2.25 inches by 2 inches). The price to include postage to mainland Great Britain is £275.00. Please email me with any enquiries - including prices for Europe and Worldwide postage.

SOLD