Most of us are aware of the importance of bees and other pollinators, which is great and of course they have been regular guests in so many artworks throughout the centuries, from tapestries, paintings, carvings and jewellery to bee carvings in ancient caves and even the famous Gucci bee logo.
So as it’s World Bee Day on 20th May this felt like a great time to highlight these little guys and their absolute beauty, just a little more! The constant focus on how we can all help to improve the environment has led to an even more heightened popularity of these pollinators and honey producers.
‘Lavender Meadows’ is a beautiful piece by artist Marie-Therese King and shows the joy bees bring visually, the artist has captured perfectly this detailed and intimate vision of nature happily existing side by side and practically helping our natural environment.
World Bee Day this year is calling for ‘global action to support pollinator-friendly agricultural production and highlights the importance of protecting bees and other pollinators, particularly through evidence based agricultural production practices.’ They have produced this guide for people to be inspired and get involved.
Watch this video to see these busy bees at work – so amazing !
https://www.fao.org/world-bee-day/en/
Global action is a serious business for us all, doing our best to help the environment but we don’t want that to overshadow the joyful playfulness that nature also gives us all. We are constantly inspired and motivated by nature, the colours, shapes, shadows, movement, an endless list of uplifting and positive images can come from just looking at our surroundings. The bees, butterflies, ladybirds all playfully jostling for prime position in the lavender, each oblivious to their beauty in both colour and form. Yellows, reds, black, whites flicker amongst the vibrant blue, lavender stems with absolute perfection.
This unending colour palette is vital for artists to be able to explore all these varying shades and pigments in nature and using slightly more unusual techniques allows a broader element of freedom and unpredictability, which reflects very well so many subject matters in nature, so artists can do their best to fully capture the hustle and bustle of nature and its vibrancy. Beatrix Potter is another famous artist/novelist who just loved these insects and studied their form intensively to get them just right in her books.
Every day we are reading about how precious these little insects are and if we all can just add a few more flowers in our gardens, window boxes or balconies and do whatever we can to try and encourage their healthy reproduction , then that’s a great deed done!
So here’s our 5 Top tips on how to help our little busy bees this year…
- Plant Pollinator plants like Cornflowers, Alliums and Catmint
- Encourage Wildflowers like Daisy’s & Dandelions with areas of uncut lawn
- Avoid using pesticides
- Build bee hotels in your garden
- Give bees water trays
And enjoy the wonder of nature!