Florida, US (BBN)-After experimenting with candy and toothpaste paintings, Mexican-born artist Cristiam Ramos is now working with preserved butterflies.
He spends several hours poring over each wing, painstakingly decorating them with detailed replicas of classical paintings, reports KPIC.
Butterfly wings don’t naturally make for good canvases – they’re small, and the texture isn’t altogether right for painting.
They’re each about 12 cm in length, so Ramos has to use a magnifying glass to get the intricacy and details right.
He spends a good 56 hours painting each wing, meticulously applying one brush stroke at a time with oil paint.
Ramos says he’s been fascinated by butterflies ever since he was a child.
“Since I was a child I was always struck by the color of butterflies and their transformation, and as I got older, my fascination with them never disappeared,” he said.
The preserved butterflies he uses now have been donated to him by his fans from across the world.
“I am the only artist in the world who has done works of art on the wings of butterflies, and I have won several awards and a world record,” said Ramos, who now lives in Orlando.
“In each butterfly I painted the most famous and works considered masterpieces, because I believe that butterflies are part of nature, which is God’s creation and the most beautiful work of art that exists.
“I painted the Mona Lisa, that to me is one of my favorites, and butterflies are always related to women or female beauty and it seemed perfect to bring these two elements, both butterfly and woman, and the result was beautiful.”
MLB/SK/AD-15Jul15-4:00pm (BST)