1410 Bee Orchids (Ophrys apifera)

Botanical Illustration. Bee Orchids (Ophrys apifera) Artist Code 1410. Completed November 2014. Original DONATED. Water colour. Unframed size 9” x 12”. Handmade wood frame, tortoiseshell finish 12” x 14”. 

Donated to a fund raising event for CAM Sight.

My Blog: “Re-draw—Bee Orchid project for Paxton Pits”

Paxton Pits Nature Reserve, for whom I produce greetings cards of my artwork with their logo on which are sold in the Visitor Centre, asked me to provide a set of four coasters: otters, kingfisher, Nightingales and Bee Orchids. I already had artwork for the first three but had to do a quick painting of bee orchids to make up the four.

In 2014 there were many bee orchids growing at my home golf course, Bourn, Cambridgeshire, and so I had plenty of live resource material (plucked with permission). A beautiful little flower.

Poem:

A delicate orchid of the bee
Is self-perpetuating, so you see
The busy bee which tries to settle
On velvet sheath and light pink petal
Is wasting time by landing there
Because this plant does not play fair