A Pond’s Life

The illustration ‘A Pond’s Life’ represents the underwater ecosystem of a lake which is rich and vibrating with all kinds of life. Some of the most common species in a Portuguese lake are: Great Diving Beetle (Dytiscus marginalis, male), Tadpole (Pelobates cultripes), Mayfly nymph (Ameletus sp.), Fishes (Chondrostoma sp., Cobitis sp.), Waterlilies (Nymphaea alba), Underwater Plants (Myriophyllum spicatum, Ceratophyllum demersum), Backswimmer (Notonecta glauca), Mallard Duck, Frog

Media: acrylic on paper

Firefly Lampyris noctiluca

This illustration of the Firefly Lampyris noctiluca is a tribute to the written work of Jean-Henri Fabre (1823-1915). Naturalist extraordinaire, Fabre was an admirable self-taught scientist with a passion and endless curiosity for insects, in addition to dabbling in scientific illustration, music, poetry, and education. His ten volumes on the life history of some of the better and less known European species of insects are as engaging as instructive, never heavy on the scientific terms or dull. Here, the lightning bugs he so passionately writes about are seen from below, with the wingless female contorting her lit body to attract the flying males above. Along the blade of grass, using a computer font inspired on Fabre’s handwriting created for this purpose, a quote from his text reads “the light is white, calm and soft to the eyes and suggests a spark dropped by the full moon.”

Media: digital