A Bee Story

I have very fond memories of bees from a pretty early age, so it is not too surprising that they would eventually begin flitting into my art work. Above is my very first bee drawing done in colored pencil from my sketchbook in 2012.

 When I was young, my paternal grandparents had a beautiful garden every year. They had a pretty small lot right in town, but their entire back yard was filled with gorgeous flowers and an incredible vegetable garden. Nestled off in one corner of the garden, my grandfather carefully tended his bee hives. 

 I loved those bees, but I really loved all the delicious honey those amazing little creatures provided. Once the hives were filled with honey, my grandfather would take all the honeycomb and hang it in a tightly woven cotton sack from a hook in the kitchen to drain out all the honey. We were all able to enjoy the fruits of the labor of all those hard working bees year round, and I was very grateful for that.

When I started developing my Bug Collection of stencils for painting on fabric, the bees were my first subject: Bees Stencil. And when I started the Embroidery Collection, of course I had to include the bees once again: Bees Embroidery Kit.