“My name is Matt, and I like Jumping Spiders.”
Typically when people see my photos, sketches or paintings of jumping spiders, I hear the same things: “Yuck!” “The only place I want to see that is on the bottom of my shoe.” “Gross!” “Creepy.” “Scary!” I assume they are talking about the spiders, but I suppose they could be talking about me!
It’s okay. Someone needs to paint jumping spiders to show off how amazing they are. These little gems are definitely under-represented in the art world. I love painting birds, but there are tons of bird artists out there. Not many creative types paint insects and arachnids. Sure, butterflies and dragonflies get a bit of attention, but other than an occasional bumble bee or honeybee, the rest are largely ignored.
The lack of a market for finished paintings is probably partly to blame. When the subject matter consists of creatures that seem to serve as a lightning rod of hate, it’s no surprise. Now I’d understand that response if I were rendering the Ebola Virus or Malaria (both of which I’ve done a few times), yet these little creatures are not only harmless but beneficial. On top of that, they have some serious cuteness in a Jim Henson-creation sort of way. The only other artwork of mine that has evoked similar comments of revulsion are illustrations of eye surgery and polycystic kidneys. Now that is bad!
As I paint these little guys, I realize that it’s purely for my own entertainment. If I’m rendering something like a Northern Cardinal, I think to myself, Someone might want this on their wall; yeah… I could see the print or original selling before too long. When I put the same effort into a jumping spider, I think, I’ll be getting some visceral responses relaying people’s complete disgust and fear when this gets posted, and then the painting will spend the rest of its life sitting next to a stack of similar paintings in my son’s closet.
Who cares—I know it’s cool! I like this spider. I had fun painting it. Good enough for me.
So here it is. This is a dark phase male Dimorphic Jumping Spider. A painting of the other phase can be seen here along with information on the two “flavors” they come it. It’s hard to believe these two morphs are the same species.
The time-lapse video compresses 6.5 hours of painting into about 8 minutes.
Prints are available here.
Gail Morton
Hi Matt,
I had to reply to your jumping spider writing and paintings. I actually do talk to these little critters in the house and it looks, to me, that they are very attentive and intelligent. So, you’re not alone! I wonder how you see all these details on such a tiny creature!
Love your work!
Gail
Matt
Thanks Gail,
I’m glad I’m not the only one to enjoy these little treasures! I take a lot of macro-photographs in order to get all the detail for the paintings. I use a 100mm macro with extension tubes and a home-made diffused three flash lighting tent. Even with the elaborate setup it is hard to get much depth of field. I tend to use many images for a given painting in order to get a little more depth. Some of the photos like the ones I’ve used as reference can be found at https://blog.bohanart.com/2014/07/more-backyard-arachnids/ and https://blog.bohanart.com/2014/07/backyard-macro-safari/
Matt