Butterfly and Innocence

A Work in Progress Acrylic and Oil on Canvas

It has been said that something
as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing
can ultimately cause a typhoon
halfway around the world
-Chaos Theory

Before we start...

Butterfly

If you have been seeing my previous posts and drawings, you might notice a number of butterfly artworks and paintings.

Butterflies have a lot of significance in my life especially to our family. My parents and relatives believes that if a butterfly visits your home, it is the soul of a deceased who wants to keep in touch with you. This is what I believe since I was a kid.
Butterflies are the best insect for me and my late brother, we used to chase them when we were young. We played in a field full of butterflies, bees and fireflies. That place was a paradise. We used to plant flowers for them.

Ink and graphite, watercolor, acrylic and more... these are the mediums I used to make butterfly paintings. Shaping their wings and then filling the colors inside makes me calm. A kind of therapy for me.

some of my previous paintings and drawings

Sad story

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My brother died peacefully because of Epilepsy last 2016. There were butterflies our house since that sad morning, a lot of them. My parents think that it is him and my late Lola and Lola.
My mother always cry whenever she sees it.
But for me, it gives me a glimpse of happiness even though what happened is really unbelievable.
Those butterflies seem like to tell us " Be brave, stay strong
And my family has been stronger since that.
But sometimes, I still wish that my brother is still alive,
Still with us.
Painting, drawing
Watching late night movies
Playing and going to vacation
I still wish he was alive.
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Back to the Painting...

Back Story:

This is the last butterfly painting that up until now I can't finish. But I hope that someday I will have the power to finish this despite of the pain when I remember my late brother. This is supposed to be a tribute painting for him. But every time I hold my paint brushes, My tears won't stop falling. Even now when I 'm writing this.

This painting has been sitting on my room for more than a year. Then I decided to make something new. I can't decide what should I paint for my next exhibit. November 1, All Saints Day, has came. It is the day where people go to cemetery to visit their lost family member. This gave me an idea to use my old artwork... the unfinished butterfly wings.

Instead of painting a simple butterfly I decided to paint more within it. I added yellow flowers, which was the flower we gave to my brother at the cemetery. It was so bright and lively. Luckily, I took photos of that flower. I can't distinguish what kind of flower it is but it kind of looked like a small Daisy and Amarillo.

PROCESS:

This is the painting I would start over again. It only has a half wing. I am thing on what kind of background shall I make to make this look like floating.

I sketched the flower using Burnt Sienna acrylic on the canvas. And then fill the colors with the corresponding shades and hues. This is a little bit challenging but is also fun. I used acrylic because it would dry fast. (at this point, i was still thinking of an effective background).

Painting it's leaves is the best part of the flower for me. I just used 2 shades of green here and a few mixed burnt sienna and white for the depth of the shadowy part. I hope I satisfied it. Continuing, I add more petals.

After finishing most part of the flowers, I have now gotten into my mind that I shall use black for the background and make the butterfly glow. (Dilemna: I don't have black acrylic paint) So I used black oil paint. This is kinda hard for me, for I don't want to use any oil and keep the texture matte. I used palette knife to spread the oil paint on the canvas. It's so satisfying until I was about to paint the corner and sides of the subject using palette knife. I had to be careful or else I will ruin the shape. I don't want to alter or repeat but it happened.