Art Challenge #12: June Bug

June Bug and the Bee

acrylic on 12" by 12" canvas board

available $60 includes shipping

email me for PayPal invoice

There are two challenges a month at The Artist Challenge - A Private Art Club and June Bug #12 is the last one this month. I say it each time, if you like challenges and haven't checked into this one, you are missing something. Vikki North, the site administrator, is always bringing in guest speakers, finding special additions and in general making it fun to be a part of The Pub!

I just read the best article about photographing your art work by Guest Speaker Randall Bellows III, Professional Photographer. If you're not a member of The Pub, this would be a good reason to join - and it's free! Mr. Bellows has three sites, a Fine Art Site, he also has a Fashion/Portraiture site and a Blog site. I haven't checked them out yet, but will be doing so very soon. His guest speaker topic was worth checking out further.

This painting is another one of my literal interpretations of the subject. I can't wait to see what ideas the other artists present. Wikipedia gives so many definitions of June Bug. You could almost paint anything and it would qualify under one of the definitions!

I got my two bugs from a wonderful bug site, North American Bug and Spiders.

My bee is a Halictid Bee - Augochloropsis sp. commonly known as a "sweat bee", who's elongated "polka dots" in the compound eyes are optical illusions, akin to the "pupil" in the praying mantis' eyes, photographed in the wild at Winfield, Illinois by Sean McCann.

My June Bug is a Cotinus nitida, one of many beetles also colloquially known as "June bug", Photo by Stephen Friedt.

I included the original images so you could see what they really looked like, especially the bee. My painting of the bee is so colorful you might think I embellished it. You can see I did not, nature took care of that all by itself!

It is better to be a young June-bug than an old bird of paradise.

Mark Twain

What a happy time!

Goodnight