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      Watercolor Illustrations by Steeven Salvat Cloak Natural Specimens with Elaborate Metallic Motifs

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      Art
      Illustration

      #beetles
      #butterflies
      #drawing
      #insects
      #watercolor

      August 6, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      All images © Steeven Salvat, shared with permission
      History, science, and nature converge in the watercolor and ink drawings of French artist Steeven Salvat (previously). Whether encasing beetles in ornate armor, rotational gears, and antique dials or rendering vast entanglements of flora and fauna, Salvat’s works exquisitely apply a fanciful veil to wildlife and insects. Each piece, which is the result of hundreds of hours of painstaking linework, stems from biological studies and 18th-century engravings, two themes the artist returns to as a way to allude to the precious qualities of the natural world.
      Salvat’s Nymphalidae series will be on view from August 14 to September 12 at Haven Gallery in Northport, New York. Find a multitude of videos detailing his process on Instagram, and shop limited-edition prints and originals on his site.

      #beetles
      #butterflies
      #drawing
      #insects
      #watercolor

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    • 163 Shares169 Views

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      Oversized Butterflies, Moths, and Beetles Cloak Vintage Books in Paintings by Rose Sanderson

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      Art

      #acrylic
      #books
      #butterflies
      #found objects
      #insects
      #painting

      January 27, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      All images © Rose Sanderson, shared with permission
      Worn copies of World Books, agricultural texts, and classic novels become canvases for Rose Sanderson’s insect studies. Now a few years old, the expansive series boasts more than 100 paintings featuring beetles, moths, and butterflies that splay across the printed material. Each specimen is enlarged to showcase the details of their bodies as they wrap around the tattered spines.
      In a note to Colossal, Sanderson shares that her process is more cyclical than linear as she’s constantly resurfacing themes, materials, and methods from earlier works or those she previously set aside. While her focus currently is on abstract interpretations of the lichens found near her home in West Wales, she draws a connection between the intricacies of the organisms she paints today and the insects of her book series.
      Keep an eye out for Sanderson’s work in Issue #24 of Create! Magazine that’s curated by Colossal’s Editor-in-Chief Christopher Jobson. You can follow her specimen-centric projects, which include forays into miniature and 3-D, on Instagram.

      #acrylic
      #books
      #butterflies
      #found objects
      #insects
      #painting

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    • 138 Shares139 Views

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      Gemstones, Delicate Filigree, and Mechanical Gears Encase Steeven Salvat’s Insect Specimens

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      Art
      Illustration

      #beetles
      #butterflies
      #drawing
      #gears
      #insects
      #watercolor

      November 18, 2020
      Grace Ebert

      All images © Steeven Salvat, shared with permission
      Steeven Salvat (previously) evokes the glass-covered entomological studies of rare butterflies, beetles, and moths with an additional layer of protection. The French artist armors the singular insects with precious gemstones, silver and gold filigree, and rotational gears. Even elements of luxury watches, like Breguet’s Reine de Naple and an intricate dial from Vacheron Constantin, cloak the critters’ outer shells.
      In a note to Colossal, Salvat writes that the growing collection of drawings is an “allegory for the preciosity of biological systems. A way to drive attention to our smallest neighbors on this planet—we need to preserve them because they are worth much more than all the gold and jewels I dressed them with.” Each intricate drawing is rendered with China black ink and watercolor and takes at least 50 hours to complete.
      Pick up a limited-edition giclée print of an encrusted creature in Salvat’s shop, and follow his latest projects merging nature, history, and science on Behance and Instagram.

      #beetles
      #butterflies
      #drawing
      #gears
      #insects
      #watercolor

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    • 125 Shares169 Views

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      Mantra’s Trompe L’oeil Murals Encase Enormous Butterflies in Vintage-Style Boxes

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      Art

      #butterflies
      #murals
      #public art
      #street art
      #trompe l’oeil

      October 15, 2020
      Grace Ebert

      Torino, Italy. All images © Mantra, shared with permission
      Working with entomologists around the globe, the French street artist known as Mantra (previously) transforms brick facades and concrete walls into massive studies of local butterfly specimens. With framed outer edges that mimic a wooden box, the trompe l’oeil murals render the winged insects in detail, depicting their richly hued scales and delicate antennae. Each artwork features species native to the area, making it possible that a live specimen might flutter by its enormous counterpart.
      In a conversation with Colossal, Mantra said he’s harbored a lifelong fascination with entomology that stems from spending hours in French gardens and bucolic areas as a kid. “As a child, I was interested, curious, and focused on the small life forms in those places,” he says. His current practice hearkens back to those carefree hours and connects with an adolescent desire to become a naturalist. “My approach is as a scientist,” the artist says, noting that education about environmental care and issues is part of the goal.
      Although Mantra considers all insects and natural life beautiful and crucial to maintaining biodiversity, the focus on butterflies revolves around his artistic ambitions because the vivid creatures allow him to experiment with color, shape, and texture. Each specimen is rendered freehand before the artist adds detail and the illusory shadows that make them appear three-dimensional. By painting various Lepidoptera species again and again, the artist is “repeating a mantra,” a detail of his practice that informs the moniker he works under.
      In recent months, Mantra has traveled to Belgium, Denmark, and Sweden, in addition to various locations throughout France, to complete public artworks, and he’ll be in Arkansas this month for two projects curated by Just Kids. Follow all of the artist’s entomological murals on Instagram.

      Rombas, France
      Cancún, Mexico. Image by Gino Caballero
      Silkeborg, Denmark
      Las Vegas, Nevada
      Dijon, France
      Jacksonville, Florida
      Brooklyn, New York
      Dallas, Texas. Image by Chop’ em Down
      Overum, Sweden
      Indianapolis, Indiana
      Cancún, Mexico. Image by Gino Caballero
      Torino, Italy. Image by Martha Cooper

      #butterflies
      #murals
      #public art
      #street art
      #trompe l’oeil

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    • 138 Shares199 Views

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      Vivid Botanics and Butterflies Encircle Photographer Fares Micue in Striking Self-Portraits

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      Art
      Photography

      #butterflies
      #flowers
      #portraits
      #self-portrait

      August 26, 2020
      Grace Ebert

      “Memories of a rainy day.” All images © Fares Micue, shared with permission
      Surrounded by monarchs or a blanket of blue leaves, Fares Micue (previously) captures vividly composed self-portraits. The Spain-based photographer conceals her face and instead focuses on the organic elements surrounding her torso. Whether a series of origami birds or yellow and red twigs resembling flames, the natural additions merge seamlessly with Micue, who bends and contorts her figure to follow the shapely forms of the arranged objects.
      In a note to Colossal, the photographer said she’s been more inclined to create since the onset of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, considering her work an invitation into self-reflection. “I am a firm believer that how we think and feel about life is how we will perceive reality. We must train our brain to always search for the bright side and find hope among the desolation,” she says. While people may not have control over global crises, they are not without agency. “I want them to feel powerful and (acknowledge) the power they have over their life experience and how to use that experience to grow and learn,” she writes.
      Find more of the Micue’s nature-infused photographs on Instagram, and pick up limited edition prints on Saatchi Art.

      “The power of becoming”
      “Imaginary prison”
      “Growing wiser”
      “Fly me away”
      “Defensive III”

      #butterflies
      #flowers
      #portraits
      #self-portrait

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    • 163 Shares179 Views

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      Paper Wildlife Sculptures by Artist Diana Beltrán Herrera Document Nature’s Most Striking Details

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      Art
      Design
      Illustration

      #birds
      #butterflies
      #paper
      #sculpture

      July 28, 2020
      Grace Ebert

      All images © Diana Beltrán Herrera, shared with permission
      In 2012, Bristol-based artist Diana Beltrán Herrera (previously) began sculpting impeccably layered paper birds and other wildlife as a way to record her surroundings. Her lifelike pieces continuously have captured nature’s finely detailed and minuscule elements, like the fibrous texture of feathers and the veins running through leaves.
      Today, the artist has expanded the practice to include exotic species and environments she’s never seen up close, developing her paper techniques to express the more nuanced details of the shapes and textures she studies in biology books. Now focusing on the structural elements of fungi, fruit, and florals, Beltrán Herrera shares with Colossal:
      Paper as a medium for documentation allows me to register and create notions and ideas of subjects that I have not experienced in real life but that I can experience when a sculpture is completed. I like this approach because it is not harmful, and through my work, I can show and tell my viewers about the things I have been learning, of the importance of nature just by researching and making it myself.
      Much of her work centers on conservation efforts and environmental justice. For example, a recent commission by Greenpeace UK bolstered the organization’s Plastic Free Rivers campaign. ” I am constantly looking for more subjects that are relevant to the times we are living in, so that through my work I can communicate important information that can educate or just make things more visible. The approach is very (graphic) and visual, which helps to deliver a message,” she says.
      Beltrán Herrera’s upcoming projects include a commission for a coral sculpture, in addition to plans to launch a studio with her brother by the end of 2020. Her hope is to merge graphic and digital design with her paper pieces, potentially adding in animation, as well. Ultimately, her goal is to dive into larger projects. “I don’t see my work as something I want to know how to make and stay safe, but as a challenge, that will always allow me to wonder how to execute and create things that were never made with paper,” she says.
      To see more of Beltrán Herrera’s creative process and follow her future pieces, head to Behance and Instagram.

      #birds
      #butterflies
      #paper
      #sculpture

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    • 150 Shares199 Views

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      Sinuous Snakes, Insects, and Florals Intertwine in Graphite Illustrations by Zoe Keller

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      “Where We Once Lived II,” copper belly water snake, graphite on paper, 14 x 14 inches. All images © Zoe Keller, shared with permission Through a winding series of delicate illustrations, Zoe Keller (previously) explores the fragility of the natural world. In Scale & Bone, the Portland-based illustrator renders copper belly water snakes, San Francisco garters, and […] More

    • 163 Shares179 Views

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      Gears and Dials Rendered in Intricate Drawings of Gem-Encrusted Insects by Steeven Salvat

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       All images © Steeven Salvat, shared with permission French artist Steeven Salvat (previously) cloaks his beetles and butterflies in an elaborate armor of rotational gears, jewel-toned gems, and muted stained glass. He tells Colossal that the heavily adorned insects merge his passion for nature, history, and science. They’re “an ode to exceptional craftsmanship and […] More