Lotus Bud and Butterflies

A single large lotus bud rises from the lower right of this big square canvas, its layered pink and coral petals modelled with full photoreal richness, glowing from within against a flat expanse of jade-green.

Across the upper field a scatter of butterflies drifts, each species painted with careful accuracy: a blue, a tiger-striped orange, a black-and-white, a small yellow and others. The empty green ground isolates bud and insects like specimens, and the quiet suspends the whole scene between realism and reverie.