I have used up all the gessoed boards, so I must be finished with this series. Here are the moth, snail and water bug being silverpointed onto the gesso.
And each one painted in watercolors.
Then it was down to the last two boards and two more specimens had to be conjured up on a white board and drawn in on the gesso.
And finished…well almost…bit more fiddling I think might be necessary.
But it is hard to stop with these.
My goal is to have a place to exhibit them. Each of the boards will be in matted frames on a wall. Then the specimens themselves are placed into a large flat file wooden drawer among leaf litter on a table in front of them. It would only take up about six feet of wall and table space six feet by three feet. It would be fun to “find” the bugs in the drawer. Also in there would be some of the bits of Nature that are in the first few pieces that are parts of my collection. Remember these?
There would be about twelve to fifteen pieces on the wall and a similar number in the drawer.
Anyway, it is hard to stop. So I was thinking maybe a field sketchbook of them in their natural habitat. Being hatched, eating leaves, whatever the discoverer saw them doing when he found them. It could be interesting with notes in some other language. Like the Voynich Journal….something strange but familiar at the same time.
Then I thought what about one of those children’s books where the upper and lower body can be changed with the flip of a page.
I think there is more to do with these little critters. But for now some touch up and putting them all into the frames that arrived this week.
I will see what comes up next. And of course there is always the Land of Lethe that needs to be considered.
Later.