Endangered, Mission Blue Butterfly (A)

The painting is 9x12 inches and was done using artist quality acrylic paints, on watercolor paper bonded to a plywood panel. It was finished with three coats of gloss medium & varnish.
The Mission blue butterfly requires the type of coastal scrub and grassland habitat found only near the Golden Gate of San Francisco. Mission blues require one of three species of lupine to lay their eggs, for the nourishment of larvae, and from which adult Mission blues emerge. Without the lupine the Mission blue cannot reproduce; and thus cannot survive! The bottom butterfly is male.