Diana Mckenna
Mixed media artist and photographer.
A lifelong ambition – to visit the Amazon Rainforest – fulfilled artistic as well as personal achievements for Diana McKenna. During her time in the jungle Diana painted profusely and here she shares Amazon Butterfly in Filtered Light. The butterfly itself forms an optical illusion, merging and emerging from the sheltering leaf. So inspirational was the landscape, that Diana was compelled to try a new painting style: abstraction. This butterfly is one of the very first, exciting results.
Artist's statement
My work has always been a response to the natural world and I have always loved drawing from direct observation. Working from nature is my particular passion. I had many pets as a child and drew them all from an early age. I still have all of those early sketchbooks.
My grandmother helped to develop my love of gardening and the natural world. It was she who (together with her many friends) helped to develop my drawing and craft activities by encouraging me and buying the products of my endeavors.
The Amazon Butterfly in Filtered Light shown here is just one of many paintings which I made while visiting the Amazon jungle. I went there with my grown-up son, my sister and her family. It had been my lifelong ambition to go to the Amazon and I had daydreamed over many a glossy photograph of the animals and insects found there. When the opportunity arose to go, I jumped at it. This painting was developed from my sketchbook drawings when I returned to the UK. This butterfly on a leaf is actually one of my first attempts at abstraction.
Many people on first glance do not see the butterfly at all – although to me it is very obvious. I was looking up at a rubber tree and the butterfly was there with strong sunlight filtering through the canopy and I could clearly see its outline shadowed though the translucent leaf. The myriad of wonderful and exotic butterflies in the Amazon is breathtaking; their colours as they sail lazily through the lush foliage, glow like jewels – my dream come true!
While in Suffolk sitting by a friend’s beautiful lake at Uggeshall last summer I was also thrilled by the damselflies skimming around there on a lovely August day. Their magical delicacy and the freedom of flight inspired me to make my latest series of pictures. The transitory nature of these creatures and their fragile bodies, and the flashes of brilliant turquoise and green, inspire in me a sense of the wonder of nature.
