Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Small Wonders

The close up photographs of the bees and butterflies that I clicked in the past few days got me wondering how and what do they really see in a flower. So I googled and discovered that "The worker bee's eye is a very complex organ with 6,900 facets, known as ommatidia each carrying out separate visual processes. Each one of these acts like an individual eye, and they stand aligned together, rather like straws in a bucket. Each one ends in a small convex, transparent lens. These lenses form the outer, glassy and oval-shaped surface of the eye. As well as the two compound eyes on either side of their head, a bee also has three simple eyes atop its head. Its estimated that these latter three are used to measure the strength of the light. The bee's eye is superior to the human eye in two respects: it can see ultraviolet light and perceive the plane of light polarization." The miracle of nature - the smaller the creature, the more complex its anatomy and structure!!!

"Just because you can't see something doesn't mean its not there" -So started an inspirational TED talk by Willard Wigan who creates art so elaborate, so tiny and so unique that they are mounted on pin heads or the eye of a needle and you have to see them through a microscope. Check his amazing video here as he explains that since his sculpture is so small he has to work between his heartbeats!

Up-close and Personal color pencils on 11x14" on hot press paper.

8 comments:

cathyswatercolors said...

Hi Meera, It seems we are both thinking about lilys. Beautiful job, I am wondering if you cropped this or sketched this way. Very nice composition.

Meera Rao said...

Thank you ! I sketched it that way -- originally I barely had any shadows at all -- I resorted to artistic license and added the shadows and the shapes in the negative space between the petals.

Kathy Staicer said...

I always love your flowers.

Meera Rao said...

Kathy, Thank you so very much!

http://www.onpainting.wordpress.com said...

Beautiful flower. You should consider painting the flower as seen from each of the 6900 facets. That will hold you til I get a rope.

Meera Rao said...

:) Thanks!

Ajay Patil said...

Beautiful flower

Meera Rao said...

Thanks Ajay!

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