Monarch Butterfly

This painting is of the monarch butterfly by M.H. Bevans. Bevans captures the distinctive black, white, and orange patterning on the monarch's delicate wings. Though delicate, the wings of the monarch carry them great distances; monarchs are remarkable because they migrate. They travel from Canada to the mountains of central Mexico and coastal California where they overwinter in clusters of thousands. This painting is one of over 3,000 small-scale watercolors commissioned by the National Wildlife Federation and used for their conservation stamps. The stamps were produced from the 1930s-1990s to promote the mission and work of the National Wildlife Federation.