A friend found a dead swallowtail butterfly and offered it to me. Whenever I find a beautiful, deceased animal, I want to pay my respects. Sometimes this means immortalizing it in a painting. This is an encaustic painting.

Swallowtail and Chicory combined the butterfly with some chicory plants I’d pressed. It was a perfect combination, since the chicory is blooming right now and I often see swallowtails near them.

This one is an eastern tiger swallowtail, most likely a male. It’s a species with two or more generations per year, with the second generation being more common in the northern part of its range (southern Ontario).