Voles and Ammanita Muscaria, watercolour, (18.5" x 12.5")

Taken from Leisure Painter March 1979, Mary Elliot Lacey encourages a careful study of creatures in their natural habitat with an emphasis on a variety of insects.

The work of the wildlife artists involves firstly, the collecting of knowledge and information by means of drawing in the field. This is an invaluable aid to successful painting and cannot be over emphasized. An area of study that is so very often ignored or forgotten is the intriguing, fascinating world of the hedgerow, wayside and wasteland. That's what we will be looking at here.

Painting creatures of hedgerow and wayside

Rose Chafer Beetle, watercolour (11" x 9")

This is the area with access for everyone, city-dweller or countryman, where even an hour of study can be very productive.

It is the land of insects, small mammals and a lot of our perching birds – the very “habitat” without which no larger bird of mammal could exist. It provides security and cover, next material and sites and most important, food; nectar from the flowers for bees and butterflies, plants for feeding larvae or moths and the like, grubs and insects for young birds, fruits for the smaller mammals, seeds for the seed eating birds and prey for the kestrel and stoat at the end of the food chain.

If we would simply look and get to close quarters with this “parkland” we would see the infinite variety and superbly coloured beetles, flies, bugs, wasps, spiders and the more obvious beauty of moth and butterfly.

When out in the field, it is a very soul-searching decision to have to make – “Do I walk with my head up or with it down?” To walk with eyes upwards looking for birds, leaves the ground floor area unseen and to wander along at floor level obviously leaves the sky area unsurveyed. It is possible to casually do both but a real searching look requires a concentration on one or the other.

The weather, the season, or indeed your own mood, can sometimes make this decision for you. Every day as I walk the woods, I find this increasingly difficult and if a few days are spent in a new environment, this is even more of a problem. There is so much everywhere waiting to be seen if only we keep out eyes open. There is so much more trying not to be seen, and greatly relieved when we pass by in too much of a hurry to look!

Wildlife study is very much a seasonal occupation governed entirely by the weather. Many birds migrate, some mammals hibernate and insects and butterflies die, pupate or in some cases hibernate when the weather becomes too cold.

The most exciting times of course are spring and autumn. After the winter, plants reawaken and a host of various coloured flowers carpet the floors of our woods and fields, bringing a new and plentiful supply of food. What a superb piece of design is a new frond of bracken pushing its way up through the previous season’s debris of old leaves, or even more beautiful is the first brimstone butterfly fluttering purposefully along in the sunshine. Everything seems to come to life and the pencil and brush must work very hard and very fast to keep pace with the fact developing season.

It may be necessary to make a series of individual studies of plants as each one grows – flowers and then seeds; these can be used as a basis to form compositions time and time again.

The season is so short with so many species of flower, maybe only a few weeks, and if the study or painting is not completed a whole year has to pass before that particular plant will flower again and further original study can be made. It is not good enough to paint from reference books, only one’s own original study will satisfy and whatever one finds and paints must of necessity be authentic.

Painting moths and butterflies

Tiger Moth, watercolour (8.5" x 5")

A very satisfactory method of studying moths and butterflies if time and patience allow, is to start by looking for and finding caterpillars (larvae). To do this, some knowledge of the food plant (that is the plant on which the butterfly or moth has laid its egg and upon which the larvae will feed) is necessary, but this can easily be ascertained from a text book. Many larvae eat at night, climbing up the plant to feed and stay hidden at the base during the day.

Having found some specimens, a fresh supply of the food plant must be served to the larvae whilst held captive in a good container (I use a propagating box) so that the larvae can go on growing to the full. At the same time, the necessary conditions and materials, must be supplied for it to be able to pupate when ready – loose leaves for those that wrap themselves in fallen leaves, a layer of soil for those that prefer to burrow down and pupate in the soil, or stems and branches for the species that will hang and weave a silken thread or cocoon.

I once read that it was estimated that 95 percent of all larvae are parasitized by various wasps or flies and all that will emerge are wasps and flies. From my own experience, although I have had some catastrophies, by collecting and keeping I have had a very high rate of success and many beautiful specimens have emerged.

Elephant Hawk Moth and Honeysuckle, watercolour (17" x 11")

When an imago (that is the newly emerged butterfly or moth) emerges from its pupal case, it must hang of a while to dry from a twig, and to pump the “blood” into its wings and expand them to the full. Once the wings are fully extended you will have time to paint the specimen while it is still undamaged and in its full glory of colour. Colours of living specimens do fade slightly and none is so beautiful as the moments after emergence, and wings can so easily become broken and tattered after a few days.

As most moths are night flying, there is usually a whole day in which studies can be made but one must be prepared to “drop everything” in order to paint and then release the specimen to fly away at night to fulfil its purpose in life and multiply. One must also be prepared to consider the species first, to take it away on holiday (where practical) as you would a dog if the possible emergence date falls within that time. The Privet Hawk Moth I once kept was taken away on holiday as a larva and sure enough on the last day it emerged and everything had to be rearranged in order to paint!

Once colour studies of a moth or butterfly have been made from all angles, it is quite possible to make a painting of flowers almost at your leisure and the appropriate moths and butterflies may be added as a focal point afterwards, but you cannot always just go out and capture a moth or butterfly when you think you want one.

Small mammals are not quite so easy to study. If you are very lucky, you can sit quietly at an appropriate place and time, and await the arrival of such things as field mice and voles, but a great deal of time, patience and perseverance is needed. Regular baiting with wild bird seed, or even meat will improve the chances of seeing them too, but do place it near to cover or this will only take place at night.

Successful compositions

Voles and Ammanita Muscaria, watercolour, (18.5" x 12.5")

Finally to the point of composition and a successful painting of this infinitely fascinating world.

The riveting joy is in being able to take a “walk” around the picture, to be able to wander as you would looking at a piece of hedgerow, discovering a few seedheads here, a few fruits there but all the time the composition leading you back to the main theme as in Speckled Wood on Brambles (below).

Speckled Wood on Brambles, watercolour (17" x 11.5")

Depth and movement is mainly achieved by constantly changing the colour being used, however imperceptibly. Light has a tremendous affect on colour and as every surface in nature is constantly changing direction, so the effect of light is also changing the appearance of that colour. Keep the paint fluid and ever changing and you will have the same fluidity and movement that nature provides.

The finest contribution that all these hours of individual study make, whether it be a drawing in the field, paint studies or a flower, a beetle or a butterfly, is the slow but sure full appreciation and awareness of the enormous beauty of life in the wild. The more we draw and study and think the most chance we have of preserving our most cherished heritage.

Painting pictures gives great pleasure to the artist – if it gives some measure of this to other people in turn, then the reward is enormous.

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This article is taken from the March 1979 issue of Leisure Painter