The start of Butterfly Forest Paints began long ago. It wasn’t until recently these colours from the forest became our paints.
As we paddled the clean waters of the Crooked River we came around a bend to find a shoreline filled with hundreds of butterflies. They rested as a community basking on the sand and sometimes fluttering about. What a magical place.
The sun shone bright, the sky was true blue and the forest was alive. Alive with so many colours. I winced, as us artists often do to just see the blur of colour and try to identify it. There were too many gorgeous colours. My heart filled.
As I painted landscape after landscape, the forest fauna, flowers and its inhabitants I found myself always mixing my own blend of colours to get it just right. Sometimes it even meant using the land itself.
Over the years I played with making my own paint, making plenty of mistakes. My watercolour paper felt more like sandpaper, the binder and pigments would have different reactions, crackling or not drifting right. It was a diabolic science experiment each time with rudimentary equipment; but over time I perfected the process to create a watercolour paint I loved and am proud of.
Finally we are able to offer my special blends to others. Some paints are created with local pigments, others are blends from quality imported ones. Our highly pigmented paints have no fillers and excellent lightfastness. They are bound with my special binder containing both gum arabic and wildflower honey among other specialty additives.
Get the perfect paper float, blending and vibrancy with Butterfly Forest Paints – so you can paint all the colours from our butterfly forest.
While I take many of my own photos for the site this one comes from my friend Philomena Hughes, who is an incredible portrait, and life photographer in Prince George BC.