Checkerboard by ALAIN HAUTMAN

About "Checkerboard"

by ALAIN HAUTMAN

About the artwork

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### 🦋 **Dance of the summer light butterfly**
A butterfly floats gracefully above a field of soft colours, caught in the golden hour of day. Her wings catch the light like stained glass, each detail a miniature painting of nature. This sculpture is an ode to lightness, freedom and the wonder of transformation.

The picture was taken in a moment of stillness, when the butterfly breaks free from the flower and chooses the sky. The background fades to a soft haze, allowing the butterfly to shine like a living jewel. The composition invites peace and wonder - a reminder of how nature manages to enchant us again and again.

Inspired by a summer walk in our own region, this work was born out of a sense of connection with the small and ephemeral. It is a visual meditation, a silent prayer in pictorial form.

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### 🦋 **Dambord** (*Melanargia galathea*)

- **Outward appearance**: Cream-coloured wings with black areas, as if forming a checkerboard pattern. A row of eye spots can be seen on the underside of the hind wings.
- **Flight time**: From **mid-June to late August**, in one generation per year.
- **Habitat**: Dry grasslands, mainly in southern Belgium. In Flanders, it is mainly found in the Voerstreek and southeastern Limburg.
- **Group**: Males fly patrol flights. Females drop their eggs in flight over short vegetation in sunny spots.
- **Food**: Nectar from flowers such as **buttonwort** and **beamweed**.

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