Love Among The Butterflies Study (Ode to Margaret Fountaine) - Framed

Cyanotype, handmade paper cut collage

Inspiration
This artwork was inspired by Victorian lepidopterist Margaret Fountaine. Described as a natural-born hunter: whether it was love, adventure or butterflies, her pursuit was relentless and her energy legendary. She emerged from an unremarkable Victorian upbringing with an extraordinary drive to self determination which defined her entire life.
Unconventional by nature, Fountaine was never cowed by society's strictures, or by what was expected, this provided her with many exciting opportunities. The price of her freedom was high but she never regretted her choices. A passionate lover and fearless individualist, her life was founded on the idiosyncratic determination to pursue her own path irrespective of convention.
Born South Acre- Norwich 1862, Margaret Fountain's life-story is remarkable, as voracious collector of butterflies as she was of beaux. An adventurous woman with zest and verve, she ranks highly among the world's finest naturalists.Fountaine's insatiable desire for travel took her to some of the loneliest and most beautiful places in the world. In later life she endured considerable hardship and sorrow, yet her energy and adventurous spirit rarely faltered. She was an outstanding woman by the standards of any age, and her diaries are a fascinating record of a wild and fearless life lived.
Her world provided us with a magical glimpse into the splendours and idiosyncrasies of an era before passports. Nurturing a growing interest in butterflies, she travelled all over the world- from English cathedral towns to the borders of Tibet- butterfly net in hand. Wearing a crumpled man's shirt with outsized pockets and a long skirt covered with the same, all filled with an assortment of glass jars and small boxes, the lady was a mystery.

She intended to leave her mark on the world- The main body of Margaret's work was her superb collection of 22,000 butterflies and exquisite painted artworks and sketches of chrysalids and caterpillars were already publicly available at the Castle Museum and The Natural History Museum.
Her private diaries on the other hand were kept secret, sealed inside a box for a hundred years, they were no ordinary documents. She decreed the 'Story Of My Life' must only be opened on April 15th 1978- They were opened two days late on the 17th (the appointed day was on a Saturday) at Norwich Castle Museum. She was concerned that her colourful personal life might detract from a serious consideration of her work, and she was right. For even when an edited version of her diaries were published in the 1980's, it was her passionate love life that caught the imagination.
She was presented as an eccentric Victorian with an indiscriminate passion for men. Although the readers of her journals have been captivated by her unorthodox private life, her importance as a butterfly collector has rarely been acknowledged. One of the most remarkable aspects of Fountaine is the degree to which her unconventional life has universal appeal to many women now. She was amazing for the times she lived in and remains so to this day. Any woman travelling alone will relate to the astonishing adventures Margaret survived, and any woman who has ever battled with the conflicting demands of love and personal freedom, children and career will recognise the choices she had to make.

Technique
Love Among The Butterflies Study (Ode To Margaret Fountaine) was created by constructing a hand-cut collage using female photographic portraiture, a renaissance style wig made of layers of hydrangea flowers and photographs of preserved butterfly specimens from my private collection. I photographed each specimen, used illustrations from my sketchbooks, some new and some from my earlier years) as the base of creating her head of butterflies.
My private collection of specimens were passed down to me from my grandparents and some gifted from my mother, the rest I have collected when exhibiting in Paris from the Deyrolle- (oldest taxidermy and natural history shop and museum in Europe).
Being able to use butterflies passed down through generations, pieces I fawned over, studied in books and adored visiting collections in natural history museums around the world is a beautiful tribute to my devotion to science and thankfulness my family fed my quest for knowledge and passion for studying science.
I first learned about Margaret Fountaine on one of my many visits to the Butterfly House in Williamson Park, Lancaster, the visitor guide started telling me a story about her studies, they showed me books and gave details of where to see her specimens at The Natural History Museum and her hometown of Norwich (Norwich Castle).
After coating the handmade paper with light-sensitive chemistry, they are left to dry in a dark room. The large-scale negatives are contact printed onto the paper pieces by exposure to daylight (UV rays). The prints are then processed by thoroughly washing in water to remove any unexposed solution. They can then be hung to dry, developing to full density Prussian blue after 24 hours. Once dried the individual butterflies are cut out and mounted onto the print to create a multi-layered, 3-dimensional paper cut artwork.

Signed by the Artist.

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