“As a kid I used to wander through the woods, turning over rocks, tearing at rotting limbs and lifting up fallen branches to investigate the tiny weird creatures and funguses growing underneath of within. Fascinated by all the forms, colors and behavior of the microcosms, I had to decide on whether to become a full-time artist or naturalist.” ___Marc Dennis
Dennis paints hyper realistic Japanese Beetles skewered to a specimen tray with pins. Coleoptera Americana Japanesa depicts a tray of beetles such as Audubon might have prepared had he been an entomologist. Whereas you or I may think of all Japanese Beetles as garden pests, the ornithologist wonders at their individual variety.
Dennis writes: “As a kid I used to wander through the woods, turning over rocks, tearing at rotting limbs and lifting up fallen branches to investigate the tiny weird creatures and funguses growing underneath or within. Fascinated by all the forms, colors and behavior of the microcosms, I had to decide on whether to become a full time artist or naturalist.” He has chosen to emphasize the variety by painting only a section of the specimen tray at 30 by 40 inches suggesting a tray of festively frosted pastries.
Dennis’s Rhinoceros Beetle, Xylotrupes Gideon #3, is a more modest 11 by 14 inches but still many times life-size. The beetle is in the foreground with the background artfully out of focus suggesting the mysterious home from which it came.