About the Artist
Hi World! I'M SCOTT
I’m Scott Fulton, an Orange County artist who grew up in Santa Barbara and has spent my life immersed in my passion for photography and the elements of nature. A graduate of Art Center College of Design, I graduated with a degree in Cinematography/Photography, and a minor in Illustration. I fell in love with color and the use of light to tell a story because I found the simple things in life are often overlooked and unappreciated.
My artistic journey began many years ago at age 9 when my mother gave me an instant camera and told me to go outside and photograph anything I found interesting. “Bring the camera back after you finish taking all the pictures and I will take it to get developed,” my mother said. I had a small pond out behind my house that became my haven and backdrop for my first photography venture.
I found myself shooting anything that would stand still for me, everything from the stray neighborhood dog to butterflies and frogs. I quickly finished the roll of film and couldn’t wait to get the pictures back to see what masterpiece I had photographed. I ran home with excitement and gave my mom the film, and as promised, she had it developed and brought home that all too familiar white and orange Kodak envelope. I opened it, and to my surprise, I had 24 beautiful shots of my index finger partially covering the lens. I was so disappointed at that moment, but I was determined. I asked for another instant camera and haven’t stopped shooting since. A lesson well learned!
After graduating from Art Center, I found myself working for the film industry as a camera operator shooting commercials and loving every minute of it. My artistic passion grew over the years, and I found myself getting back into “Stills” where I fell in love with the art of Food Photography! I immersed myself and learned everything I could about all the tricks of that trade, and began photographing food for publications, menus, and restaurants.
Fast forward to the next phase of my life when I started a family. The artistic world sometimes can be unforgiving and tough for an artist. I knew starting a family meant responsibility, bills, and insurance. What happened next was a complete 180. I offered my photography and camera experience to a local fire department to shoot their training videos. They took me up on my offer and gave me a job working for the city working for both the police and fire departments. Before I knew it, I was riding around on fire engines and in police cars all the while filming and interviewing for their monthly training videos. What a blast I thought; I loved it so much that I applied for a job as a Firefighter and got hired. I have worked as a firefighter for the past 25 years while never giving up my artistic endeavors. Having just retired, provided more time to create my artwork.
Prior to retiring three years ago, I visited the Dominican Republic where I saw a beautiful exhibit of exotic butterflies and became fascinated by their beauty. Different colors. sizes and shapes of butterflies filled the air of the exhibit as they gently floated amongst themselves. As I sat and watched in amazement, I saw a group of giant, blue butterflies grouped together perched on the base of a tree forming a kind of a shape. In my mind’s eye the shape formed into what I could only describe as a long, flowing, fluorescent blue dress. I couldn’t get that image out of my mind, so I came home and brainstormed about how to creatively reproduce and display it as a work of art.
From that day on, I have been designing beautiful, butterfly artwork. I make each display from start to finish and sign and date each display. My exotic butterfly artworks are of the finest quality in the world. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me via email. Sfsworld1@yahoo.com
My art business has been designated as a “Trusted Art Seller” with Woo Commerce, which means you can shop with confidence, and know that I stand behind the quality and value of my products.
Inspiration
Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. However, when it comes to artistic expression, truly magnificent masterpieces do not necessarily have to be pretty. Instead, the beauty of an artwork is closely linked to its ability to stimulate emotions within us.
It is the artist’s potential to successfully communicate a wide variety of thoughts and feelings that make art beautiful. Art stills our deep longing for rhythm, balance, and harmony. When combined, these three elements form beautiful artworks that please our senses. At the same time, art celebrates the artist’s triumph at manifesting their ideas and giving their creativity a shape. As much as we all appreciate the beauty of art, it is truly difficult to express how artworks make you feel. In fact, words alone are not enough to describe what art communicates to us. As such, putting your deep affection for art to paper can prove to be quite a challenge. To help you with expressing your great love of artistic expression, I’ve created the following collection of inspirational art. Please Enjoy!
Techniques
One of most frequent questions I get is, are they real?
Of course! All our butterflies are preserved using the same techniques museums use to prepare their specimens for display. Butterfly’s have exoskeletons that can be maintained indefinitely, just like our own skeletons. The wings are also part of their exoskeleton, are made of chitin, and have scales that reflect light and give us the colors we see when we look at them.
Are the colors real and how long does the color last?
Yes, the colors are real. Only a few butterflies’ loose color or fade over time. Properly maintained in a collection or display they can last indefinitely.
Where did you get them?
The exotic butterflies that I use for my displays are purchased from Commercial Butterfly Breeding Farms located primarily in South America, Africa, and Indonesia. None of them are captured or killed for my art nor are any of them endangered species. With their life spans being approximately three weeks, they flourish in their natural enclosed surroundings. The butterfly’s mate, lay their eggs and soon die a natural death. The workers then pick up the butterflies and rate each one for its quality. I purchase only the highest quality butterflies that the farms offer. The females are brought in from the wild to lay their eggs inside a large, enclosed habitat. This way she and all of her babies are protected from disease, parasites, and predators. One female butterfly can lay thousands of eggs. In the wild only a handful will survive into adulthood because of all these obstacles. In captivity virtually 100% will survive. Once the butterflies reach adulthood many are released back into the wild to help increase the indigenous populations. The rest are kept in the butterfly house for the rest of their lives, which is only a week or so in most cases, after they hatch from their chrysalis.
Butterfly Farming is a win win situation! It helps to preserve rain forests and assures the survival of natural butterfly habitats. Butterfly farmers are encouraged to grow plants and raise insects opposed to clearing land for cash crops. Your purchases will help the farming industry continue without threats to the natural wild populations of butterflies.
I have each species of butterfly imported from their country of origin depending on the color scheme I am working on. This can take weeks if not months to get a certain species of butterfly based on inventory and the mating season of each butterfly. For example, the Red Glider the only red butterfly in the world that comes from central Africa only produce offspring only a couple of times a year. Once I receive the butterflies, there is a lengthy process I go through to get to the final product. This involves treating, relaxing, pinning and drying, spreading of their wings, and putting together a giant puzzle to create each art piece. It is all preplanned and each butterfly is methodically placed to create the illusion of color and giving the art piece life.
Do I need to do anything to maintain my specimens?
The specimens are permanently preserved and will last a lifetime with proper care. They should be kept under glass and must be away from direct sunlight or excess humidity. PLEASE NOTE: Dried butterfly’s are very fragile. We cannot guarantee that legs on butterflies will be complete. Sometimes these are broken or missing. When doing my artwork, I do my best to persevere a the butterfly in it’s most natural state.
Career Highlights
Choose a Job You Love, and You Will Never Have to Work a Day in Your Life! I feel blessed and very fortunate that throughout my life I found myself doing the things that I loved, which meant I was inspired by passion and the drive to succeed at whatever I put my mind to. I was always told, “When you have a dream, you’ve got to grab it and never let go, nothing is impossible, and be the best you can be”.
Butterflies Used In Original Artwork
Orange Albatross
Appias Nero, like a beautiful sunset, the orange albatross butterfly, also known as the appias nero figulina, is the only species of butterfly in the world that is entirely orange in color. Originating in Indonesia, males and females are similar, but with one exception, the females have a black border and black veining running throughout their fore wings and hind wings they have much less boldness in their coloring than the males.
Blood Red Glider
Cymothoe sangaris, commonly referred to as the Blood Red Glider is a species of butterfly of the family Nymphalidae.[1] It is found in Central Africa,\ its wings are an outstanding “blood-red.” The species is primarily arboreal, keeping to the forest canopies earlier in the day then descending to lower levels of the forest during the late afternoon to early evening. These are medium-large to large-sized (wingspan 40-70 millimeters) often quite colorful butterflies.
The Common Grass Yellow
Eurema Hecabe, the common grass yellow, is a small pierid butterfly species found in Asia, Africa and Australia. They are found flying close to the ground and are found in open grass and scrub habitats.
Orange Barred Giant Sulphur Butterfly
The Orange-barred Giant Sulphur Butterfly, is a resident of the New World Tropics. It is specifically found in lowland tropical America and south on into Brazil. However, it can be an irregular vagrant in southern Texas, Colorado, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Connecticut. Orange-barred Giant Sulphurs can be found in forest edges, city gardens, and roadsides where flowers grow. They prefer open areas. The Orange-barred Giant Sulfur has a wingspread of 2.75 to 3.25 inches. It has distinguishing yellow and orange markings. The male forewing has a red-orange bar and the hindwing has an orange-red outer margin. Females are larger than the males and are dimorphic. One is yellow with a orange hue and the other is white. Both forms of the female possess a solid black cell spot and black smudges. The outer half of the hindwing on the yellow butterfly is red with an orange hue.
Blue Black Butterfly
Asterope optima is a species of butterfly of the family Nymphalidae, the wingspan of Asterope optima can reach 57–68 millimeters (2.2–2.7 in). The coloration and patterns of this species are quite variable. Usually, the dorsal sides of the wings are metallic bright blue with paler margins, while the under sides are basically grayish or pale blue with rows of small black spots and lines on the hindwings and a large reddish-orange patch on the basal half of the hindwings. The adults fly all year round but they are most common from September to November. This species can be found from southern Colombia through Ecuador to northern Peru and western Brazil. It lives in tropical evergreen and semi-deciduous forests, at an elevation of (330–7,870 ft) above sea level.
Ascia Buniae The White Black Butterfly
