#2995 "Black Swallowtail Flutterby"

#2995 "Black Swallowtail Flutterby" 
12 X 16 (inches).
Started at 9:30 am Saturday, January 24th, 2026

This is another image taken by my friend, John Verburg. John shares his photographs with me as a source of inspiration when conditions outside are not conducive to plein air. Canvases #2993 and #2994 were still very wet, so I decided to forge ahead on another canvas. It was freezing cold (minus 30 Celsius) outside so the comfort of the Studio was very appreciated. 

I look for unusual words to keep the titles of each painting as unique as the chronological number in my portfolio. By mistake, different paintings have been assigned the same name in the past.  Doh!

Apparently, "flutterby" is the plural form of flutterbies, which is a spoonerism of butterfly. A "spoonerism" is a verbal error in which a speaker accidentally transposes the initial sounds or letters of two or more words, often to humorous effect. Being quite dyslexic, this comes naturally to me. 

The name for these beautiful insects comes from the belief that butterflies were enchanted 'witches' and were renowned for eating dairy products... perhaps for the calcium? There are a lot of references to this in Dutch and German dialects. In the northern part of the Netherlands, butterflies are called 'roomzoepers', which translates into 'creamdrinkers'. "Butterfly" is directly translated to "summerbird" in Norwegian, which I find to be particularly apt. 

The Black Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio polyxenes) in John Verburg's image was feeding on a thistle plant. Butterlifes (dyslexia at wrok in the previous misspelling, but I liked it so left it unfixed) are particularly fond of thistles, which are "pollinator party hotspots". These "weeds" offer copious, high-quality food resources for both adult butterflies and their larvae. Thistles are among the most productive plants for nectar, producing more per flower head than almost any other wildflower. 

Thistles are also welcome at Singleton for these reasons. A weed is just a human prejudice against a flower growing somewhere they do not want it to flourish. People are the problem and not the flower. 

Art and science are searches for the truth. Humans, and especially politicians fueled by greed, have much to learn. I think this was a male Black Swallowtail.

For this and much more art, click on Pixels or go straight to the Collections. Here is the new Wet Paint Collection. Thank you for reading, and stay well!

Warmest regards, and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick