Mexican Bluewing Butterfly life cycle Painting

This is a large, decorative botanical painting that would look at home in any man's study or sunny sitting or dining room. Botanical art brings nature into our living spaces, and they don't need to be fed or watered. Lend a touch of class to your home with a scientifically accurate piece of wall art. Adelia vaseyi is a large shrub native to northern Mexico that spills over the Rio Grande into deep south Texas. It is the caterpillar host plant for the Mexican Bluewing Butterfly. I was the initial director of the North American Butterfly Association's National Butterfly Center in Mission, Texas, I planted a row of these shrubs at the Butterfly Center and was able to watch the life cycle of this beautiful, iridescent blue butterfly. I couldn't resist documenting this natural event in a painting. This is the original watercolor painting. Beside the butterfly with it's wings open and closed, the painting also has a small, yellow-green caterpillar covered in dark spikes and a chrysalis .