New print inspired by my cinnabar moth encounter

Hurrah! It’s the first new product of the year. I know, I know…it’s been a while. This global pandemic has really thrown me off, especially when face coverings were made mandatory. For a deaf person, not being able to see people’s faces is disconcerting.

Just as I start to adjust and get to grips with my new reality, it is autumn. Already! I asked myself, ‘what have you been doing for the last 6 months?’ but then realised I shouldn’t beat myself up. I have had some wholesale orders (preparing orders takes up a LOT of time), I undertook some useful admin work, and I joined some ‘virtual’ markets. I also adopted a greyhound, which has been a tad distracting!

But, back to work, and just a month ago I started thinking about a couple of new products to launch before Christmas. This Moths print is one of them! The print is inspired by a meeting with a cinnabar moth in my back garden. It was a warm day, and I was wandering around enjoying the spring air. What I initially thought was a beautiful red and black butterfly suddenly landed on my hand. I said hello and was surprised how long it stayed, and I used the time to whip out my phone and take some photos.

Wanting to know the name of this butterfly, I looked it up and discovered that it is in fact a moth! My previous experience of moths was that they were brown or grey coloured. I also thought that they only emerged at night, so I was puzzled as to why a moth was flying about in the middle of the day. A little bit of research taught me that whilst most moths fly at night, some moths are specifically day flying moths! This experience led me to look at all the other colourful moths that exist and inspired me to paint a collection of day flying moths. The result is the creation of the Moths print, which I feel complements my British Butterflies and Beetles prints very well.

I painted the moths with watercolour and a little gouache. I then scanned them and arranged them together. I decided to go off-piste and make them less uniform than my Bugs designs…and I LOVE how it turned out! I think the colours and details are incredible. I am proud of it and I hope you like it too. This new design is available as both A4 and A3 sized prints.