A couple of weeks ago I found myself in a painting mood with only a few hours left in our mountain house before having to return to Northern Virginia.  Starting something new – especially getting out all of my oil paints etc. seemed daunting.  I decided to paint a butterfly because I hadn’t done one in quite a while.  Below is the result of that exercise.  This is a swallowtail with blue on the wings, which presented an added challenge but I was happy with the result.  The paint is gouache and the black markings are ink.  I hope you like it!