Butterflies, Birds & Wildlife · vertical

Ember Wings Butterfly on a Red Flower

A stylized butterfly with large patterned wings in orange, red and yellow sits beside a big red flower with golden outlines. Thin lines radiate from behind the insect across a white background, and a thick, richly mottled red-orange border frames the whole image.

Someone wants this piece over other butterfly prints because it is built like an ornament rather than a specimen. The wings are made of segmented, brick-like cells and spirals in fiery orange, red and yellow. Mottled, glassy fills sit inside bold outlines, and the whole thing glows against a clean white ground. The butterfly's round eye looks straight at the red flower, which gives the image a small story of its own. It is warm, graphic and instantly readable from across a room, and it is not a soft pastel garden butterfly.

Artwork by Omaste Witkowski