BUTTERFLY FRIDAY: HOW A WEEKLY PAINTING RITUAL SHAPED MY LATEST WALLPAPER DESIGNS
Butterflies have always held a special place in my artwork
Over the years, I’ve found plenty of different ways to gather inspiration for my pattern designs.
I live in Plymouth, MA (just before the bridge to Cape Cod), so sometimes I drive down 6A through the small Cape towns to see which pieces of the local scenery will catch my eye first.
One of my favorite sources of creative inspiration is chasing butterflies. (Yes, really!) But I never try to catch them, I’m just admiring.
I’ll go for long, winding walks through local fields or public gardens, hoping to be inspired by the sunlight, the fresh flowers, the bees, and if I’m lucky, maybe a few butterflies.
I LOVE HOW BUTTERFLIES ENCOURAGE US TO EMBRACE CHANGE AND NEW SEASONS
Butterflies carry so much symbolism. They represent growth, change, rising above, starting fresh, going with the flow. All the things we humans need reminding of every so often.
They’re also a color-lover’s dream, since there are almost 20,000 different kinds of butterflies in the world.
One of my favorite random butterfly facts is that a group of butterflies is called a kaleidoscope. It’s the perfect description for when you get to see thoses dizzying flashes of color dancing through the air.
WHENEVER MY INSPIRATION DIPS, I TURN TO MY CREATIVE ROOTS
Butterfly Friday started last fall. As the seasons started to shift and it got a little colder (and a lot darker) here in New England, I found myself feeling flat in my creative work.
I especially wanted to reconnect more with my painting.
It’s so important to me that my patterns feel lively and genuinely human-made.
Even though the end product is a digitized vector design that can be scaled into things like wallpaper or fabric, I still want all my work to start as an analog artwork first, something that’s drawn or painted on real paper by my own hand.
I thought I might feel more connected to this part of my process if I saved a specific time every week just to sit with my paints and play.
So I PAINTED ONE BUTTERFLY A WEEK FOR 17 WEEKS
Monarch butterflies are one of my forever favorites. You’ll see them fluttering around New England in the summer, and I love to see them visiting the flowers in my yard.
For this project, though, I wanted my inspiration to be free to ramble butterfly-style wherever it wanted to go.
So, I decided that I’d paint butterfly species from all over the world, in whatever order I felt called to paint them.
The routine itself was pretty simple. It was just me, some Gouache paints, a small blank square of paper, and the whole world of butterflies to explore.
ONE-BY-ONE, THE COLLECTION CAME TOGETHER
I wanted to capture the full range of vivid colors and the fluid, shimmery, ways that butterfly wings transform as they move.
The first Friday, I painted a Giant Swallowtail (Papilio Cresphontes), a bold, large-winged, yellow-and-black butterfly that’s often seen as a symbol of resilience and light, two things I wanted more of for myself this season.
A few Fridays later, I painted the Blue Morpho, a striking butterfly with brilliant, iridescent wings that shift in flight from earthy brown to shimmering blue, a reminder to me that perspective changes everything and there is magic in the way we choose to see.
THE REAL LESSON WAS MOVING ON WHEN THE TIME WAS RIGHT
Eventually, I put the project down. In my head, I had always planned for 52 Butterflies, a complete year of Fridays. And maybe someday when I need the practice again, I’ll go back that idea.
But this year, it turned out the butterflies only needed to carry me through 17 Fridays before I felt ready to move on.
My final butterfly, Papilio Iaglaizei, also known as the Moth Mimic Swallowtail, is often associated with quiet adaptation and inner transformation, the kind of change that happens slowly beneath the surface before anyone can see it.
It felt fitting. Although no one else would probably notice a change in me, I felt different. The butterflies had brought a fresh burst of creative energy back into my painting, and I was ready to move forward to new projects again.
A WALLPAPER INSPIRED BY BUTTERFLIES IN FLIGHTI’m excited to share “Mavie,” part of the Katie Lyn Designs X Loomwell Collection.
Inspired by a field of butterlies in flight, this peel-and-stick wallpaper is damage-free and easy to install.
A kaleidoscope of color and a joyful addition to any room.
MEET THE “MAVIE” WALLPAPER from the LOOMWELL X KATIE LYN DESIGNS COLLECTION
This past winter, when I was working on a new wallpaper concept for Loomwell, I decided to look back at my Butterfly Friday paintings to see if I could weave them together into one true, cohesive pattern.
To make that happend I needed to make the collage of color I had created feel like one connected story. I wanted it to feel like a field of butterflies, a flurry of movement and possibility, all in flight at once.
I’m delighted to share that this new pattern, one of my most personal so far, is now available in three colorways on Loomwell.
You’ll find it called the “Mavie” Wallpaper on the Loomwell website. If you check it out, please drop me a note or DM, I’d love to know what you think!
Artist’s Note: The links on this page are affiliate links to Loomwell products featuring my surface pattern designs. If you make a purchase through one of these links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.