{"title":"Specimens","description":"\u003cp class=\"hook\"\u003eEach one is a single insect, alone on white paper – and the Latin name tells you which.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese are my watercolour specimens: original-watercolour insect studies in the old language of natural history, where the subject is set down on bare paper with nothing around it and nowhere to hide. Some are anatomically faithful. Some I invented outright. The binomial underneath is an honest contract – it tells you whether I kept the creature real, named it for a feeling, or made it up.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eApis fratris is the kept-real one, and the apex – a male Buckfast bee, anatomically exact, painted from life over four days among my own flowers, in honour of the bee and Brother Adam, the monk who bred it. Neuroptera spectralis is real too, but named for how it struck me – a lacewing so faint it seems barely there, laid down in the thinnest washes I could manage. Phyllium imaginarium is the invented one, and the name admits it – a real leaf insect given a wing the living ones don't have. A beautiful forgery, signed as one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAll three came out of the same garden as Green Lush, where they lived among the leaves before I ever lifted them onto the bare paper. A photograph could catch any of them in a moment. These took the opposite – a hand choosing every hair, every wing-vein, every grain of pollen by eye, the original of each no bigger than twelve or thirteen centimetres. That is what you are really looking at. Not the insect, but the attention.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"closer\"\u003eReal, named for a feeling, or invented – each one tells you the truth about itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"closer\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"UTF-8\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eEvery piece is a giclée fine art print, made to order on museum-grade Hahnemühle German Etching – a heavyweight 310gsm mould-made fine art paper, acid- and lignin-free to museum standard. Printed in pigment-based archival inks, never dye, for colour rated to last over 100 years on indoor display, out of direct sunlight. From an original watercolour by Léna Ruisz, never mass-produced. \u003cb\u003eAvailable in portrait sizes from 4 × 6 in (10 × 15 cm) upward, on bright paper-white.\u003c\/b\u003e You are buying the fine art print only – any frame, mount or props in the photographs show scale and setting and are not included. Free worldwide shipping, sent ready to live with.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"neuroptera-spectralis-lacewing-fine-art-print","title":"Neuroptera spectralis – Lacewing","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA real lacewing, found on a wall and painted in washes so thin it is almost not there. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA delicate, minimal natural history watercolour, and an archival fine art print. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eI painted it exactly as it is, every wing vein true. But it felt so ghostly, so close to not being there at all, that I could not give it its real name, and I changed the species to spectralis. It is a real insect, named for how it struck me. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe whole creature is barely there, so the painting is too. The thinnest washes I know how to lay down, lines so fine they seem to appear and vanish in the same moment. The skill in it is restraint, knowing when to stop and when not to put paint down. Come near and watch the wing hold together out of almost nothing. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eI loved this one for its ethereal elegance, and I will leave it at that. It is the quiet one, grace rather than drama, for the wall that rewards a slow look instead of demanding one. What it offers is the trace of a person who gave one almost weightless insect more attention than almost anything is given no\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Wildcabinet","offers":[{"title":"4×6″","offer_id":54172994666837,"sku":"WC-NEU-4X6","price":38.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"A5","offer_id":54172994699605,"sku":"WC-NEU-A5","price":48.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"5×7″","offer_id":54172994732373,"sku":"WC-NEU-5×7″","price":48.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"A4","offer_id":54172994765141,"sku":"WC-NEU-A4","price":68.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"8×10″","offer_id":54172994797909,"sku":"WC-NEU-8×10″","price":68.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"A3","offer_id":54172994830677,"sku":"WC-NEU-A3","price":98.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"11×14″","offer_id":54172994863445,"sku":"WC-NEU-11×14″","price":98.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1041\/1445\/4869\/files\/LR_NeuropteraSpectralis_2026_v1_Mockup_Hero_d995954a-8a46-4e59-a0bd-925d8fd08145.jpg?v=1781815953"},{"product_id":"apis-fratris-buckfast-bee-fine-art-print","title":"Apis fratris ♂ – Buckfast Bee","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"UTF-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA male Buckfast honeybee, painted from life, every hair and grain of pollen true. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAn anatomically exact contemporary watercolour, made as an archival fine art print. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIt is a Buckfast bee, the strain bred a century ago by Brother Adam, a monk at Buckfast Abbey in England. So Apis fratris is literal: the bee of the brother. The mark ♂ tells you it is a drone, a male. Nothing here is invented. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis is my first anatomically accurate painting, and it pushed me past everything I knew. I never trained, I work from what I see, and for this I let go of a single medium and reached for four at once by feel: watercolour, white gouache, coloured pencil, and pearlescent oil pastel for the wings. I painted it from life, kneeling in my garden with real bees in the air, the females out working and the drones idling around the hive. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGet close to the hairs, the pollen caught on the legs, the light bending across the wing. Nothing tells you a hand did this except the work itself, every hair of it painted on an original of about twelve to thirteen centimetres. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLiving with a bee is a quiet, daily way of honouring the thing that builds most of what we eat. A hive is less a swarm than a single organism made of thousands, one that renews itself and never quite dies. And this is its drone: a male hatched from an unfertilised egg, with no father, whose one purpose is to carry the line forward.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"UTF-8\"\u003e\n\u003cem\u003ePrinted to order on Hahnemühle German Etching, a heavyweight 310gsm mould-made fine art paper, acid- and lignin-free to museum standard, with archival pigment inks. A giclée from an original watercolour by Léna Ruisz, never a mass reproduction, colour-managed to stay true to the original painting. Because every screen shows colour a little differently, what you see on your device may vary slightly from the finished print. Free worldwide shipping, arriving ready to live with. No frame is forced on you, so choose the size that fits your wall. \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cem\u003eYou are buying the fine art print only. The frame shown in the product image, and any mount, furniture, plants or other props in the photographs, are there to show scale and setting. They are not included in your purchase.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Wildcabinet","offers":[{"title":"4×6″","offer_id":54173302554965,"sku":"WC-APS-4X6","price":38.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"A5","offer_id":54173302587733,"sku":"WC-APS-A5","price":48.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"5×7″","offer_id":54173302620501,"sku":"WC-APS-5×7″","price":48.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"A4","offer_id":54173302653269,"sku":"WC-APS-A4","price":68.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"8×10″","offer_id":54173302686037,"sku":"WC-APS-8×10″","price":68.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"A3","offer_id":54173302718805,"sku":"WC-APS-A3","price":98.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"11×14″","offer_id":54173302751573,"sku":"WC-APS-11×14″","price":98.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1041\/1445\/4869\/files\/LR_ApisFratris_2026_v1_MockupHero.jpg?v=1781817294"},{"product_id":"phyllium-imaginarium-leaf-insect-fine-art-print","title":"Phyllium imaginarium – Leaf Insect","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA real leaf insect, given a wing the real ones do not have. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA contemporary entomology watercolour, printed as an archival fine art print. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIt is a real leaf insect, almost. The fine white linework on its back was too beautiful to leave out, so I painted it in, and gave it a wing to go with it. Mine can fly. The real ones cannot. Because I changed what it is, I could not honestly keep its species name, so I called it imaginarium: invented, and admitted. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThat is how the Latin runs through the Specimens. A true and exact painting keeps the real name, the bee. A real creature named for a feeling keeps the feeling, the lacewing. And one I altered says so, here. The name is a record of what I did, not just a label. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIt is a master of disguise, made to pass for a leaf down to its worn edges. A leaf insect is already a forger, faking a leaf its whole life, and I forged it one step further, then signed the forgery. The way it is painted falls between its siblings, fuller than the lacewing, lighter than the bee. The original is about twelve to thirteen centimetres, the same small scale as the other two. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePast that, there is no message to chase. It is a beautiful, near-impossible creature, and a small game for anyone who reads its name. A pretty bug, and I love bugs. The delight of the collection.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePrinted to order on Hahnemühle German Etching, a heavyweight 310gsm mould-made fine art paper, acid- and lignin-free to museum standard, with archival pigment inks. A giclée from an original watercolour by Léna Ruisz, never a mass reproduction, colour-managed to stay true to the original painting. Because every screen shows colour a little differently, what you see on your device may vary slightly from the finished print. Free worldwide shipping, arriving ready to live with. No frame is forced on you, so choose the size that fits your wall. \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cem\u003eYou are buying the fine art print only. The frame shown in the product image, and any mount, furniture, plants or other props in the photographs, are there to show scale and setting. They are not included in your purchase.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Wildcabinet","offers":[{"title":"4×6″","offer_id":54179272261973,"sku":"WC-PHY-4X6","price":38.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"A5","offer_id":54179272294741,"sku":"WC-PHY-A5","price":48.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"5×7″","offer_id":54179272327509,"sku":"WC-PHY-5×7″","price":48.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"A4","offer_id":54179272360277,"sku":"WC-PHY-A4","price":68.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"8×10″","offer_id":54179272393045,"sku":"WC-PHY-8×10″","price":68.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"A3","offer_id":54179272425813,"sku":"WC-PHY-A3","price":98.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"11×14″","offer_id":54179272458581,"sku":"WC-PHY-11×14″","price":98.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1041\/1445\/4869\/files\/LR_PhylliumImaginarium_2026_v1_Mockup_Hero.jpg?v=1781870336"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1041\/1445\/4869\/collections\/WC_Specimens_2026_v1_CollectionHero_ApisFratris_2048x2048_41ad1bc8-9acb-4d67-a98a-4de11e5fefdd.jpg?v=1781868887","url":"https:\/\/www.wildcabinet.com\/collections\/specimens.oembed","provider":"Wildcabinet","version":"1.0","type":"link"}