Costa’s Hummingbird and Chuparosa Original Painting

Calypte costae and Justicia californica

Acrylic on watercolor paper, 2008

18 x16″ framed; archival matboard, black metal frame

After finishing the UCSC science illustration program, I interned at Cal Academy under Dr. Tom Daniel in the Botany Department. Tom works with the family Acanthaceae, and happened to be working on a paper about pollination of J. californica by Costa’s hummingbird. I created a detailed pen-and-ink botanical for Tom, and later painted both plant and bird together.