This painting is a slight departure in my "Birds and Teacups" series, the little butterfly handle on this sweet Italian tulip demitasse called for a more relevant model and it so happens that one of the gorgeous Tiger Swallowtails that frequent my garden was happy to oblige! I love the movement in the pattern of the tulips, demitasse and wings, balanced by the dark quiet recesses within the tulips and among the shadows. Tulips, in the lexicon of the Victorian language of flowers, convey the message "beautiful eyes" and the variegated ones say "secret lover". This combined with the, here one moment, gone the next, butterfly and a cultured Italian demitasse paints an interesting vignette!