Saving The Bees With Art
Dot, a potter for fifteen years and Ray, a beekeeper for thirty-five found a creative solution for a worldwide problem. 48% of managed honeybee colonies were lost last year. Pesticides, monoculture, habitat loss — the familiar reasons. But there’s one that rarely gets mentioned: on a hot summer day, a single colony needs up to half a gallon of water — just to cool the hive. And most backyards don’t have a single safe spot that can provide it. The birdbath is built for birds, not bees. The rim is too steep, too slick — bees slip, drown, or fly on. The open bowl on stone or concrete overheats within hours. By afternoon, it’s empty. The backyard pond comes closest — but bees don’t like open water without a foothold. The street puddle is what’s left. Bees find it because nothing else is there. But asphalt puddles contain tire residue and motor oil — a colony that drinks from them for weeks overwinters worse.
Dot and Ray together came up with an elegant and beautiful solution. The ceramic poppy – simple, open, with a deep well. After fifteen years, over a dozen ceramic poppies created by Dot, sat in the flower bed. One summer during a heat wave, Ray poured sugar water into one of Dot’s bowls. Beekeeper instinct. Next morning, three bees were on it.
Dorothy “Dot” Callaway (64) in her workshop in Weaverville
“That’s when I started really watching. Not just making pottery. Really watching. How they land. Where they land. What’s too deep, what’s too shallow.”
Here’s what Dot learnt and put into practice with her ceramic poppies
- Bees orient by blossom shapes — a round ceramic bowl between plants is a natural landing signal.
- Rim depth is everything: too shallow = slip. Too deep = drown. The current form sits exactly between.
- A slightly rougher glaze on the rim gives grip — smooth surfaces get avoided.
- In flower bed shade, water evaporates 3× slower than in open bowls on concrete.
- Clean water makes the difference: street puddles with oil harm the colony. Fresh water doesn’t.
Every glaze mixed by hand — every color slightly different. “That’s not a flaw. That’s proof it’s handmade.” From simply watching and then creating Dot has made the world a better place – especially for the bees.
How can your art add heart to the world?
Becoming An Artist In Her 60's
Gina Long from the UK has lived what she says has been a “very amazing life” with a long varied career, from raising millions for charity, to being appointed MBE, but she never expected to wake up one day in her 60s and feel a desire to host her own art exhibition. It all began six years ago when Ed Sheeran donated one of his first abstract paintings to an auction Gina held for her charity work. Inspired by Sheeran’s abstract paintwork, Gina transformed her greenhouse into a studio, and she said the rest was history.
The 64-year-old has since created more than 30 pieces of work ready for her debut exhibition, Square Peg Round Hole. It’s all been so organically lovely, but a complete revelation in my life. I, in no way, thought in my latter years I would be an artist. Gina said this new chapter, and specifically this exhibition, had been about painting the harsh, messy truth about life and was for those who had felt out of place.
I often say, I’ve lived a very amazing life, and I’ve failed at times, and I’ve succeeded. But I’ve rarely neatly fitted, and so on my canvas is the messy truth about real life.
Gina’s main message is one of empowerment and she encouraged people to put your head above the parapet. I hope it speaks to anyone also who’s ever felt out of place, out of depth, and celebrating the act of simply showing up as yourself despite the pressures not to do so she added.
17 Year Old Wins In The Big Pond
Jasmine “Jazz” Lancaster Merton was meant to be on year 12 camp,but instead, the 17-year-old rolled up to a warehouse in Sydney, armed with boxes of coloured pencils and a growing sense of trepidation. Along with 53 others, Jazz had submitted a self-portrait and then been selected to compete for the title of Australia’s Portrait Artist of the Year.
In her heat, Jazz (the youngest artist there) was just excited to be in the room with so many real-life artists. But not only was her portrait deemed the best that round, but Jazz also impressed the judges with her detailed portrait of Marcia Hines in the semifinal. And in the final round, Jazz’s bright portrait of INXS icon Kirk Pengilly led them to praise her “wonderful artistic sensibility” and “incredible level of skill”. The 17 year old was crowned the youngest winner of the competition- Australia’s Portrait Artist of the Year 2026.
Looking back Jazz struggles to remember a time in her life when she wasn’t “doing or into art” but taking the subject at high school, the teenager’s passion grew, and her bedroom soon doubled as her studio. Portraits quickly became her favourite style. I don’t really paint or draw anything much else; I think I just really like people.I really like that people sort of customise themselves in different ways. And there’s an infinite amount of possibilities of what people can look like. In 2025, her mum suggested she enter the Archibald Prize for younger artists, the Young Archies. She decided to give it a go, painting “all day, every day, for a couple of weeks”. Her self-portrait, My Name is Jazz, won the prize for 16 to 18-year-olds.
As this year’s Portrait Artist of the Year, Jazz was commissioned to paint a portrait of actor and entertainer Justine Clarke, to be hung in the National Portrait Gallery. With support from her school, Jazz worked hard to get the portrait completed in time, and it is hanging proudly on the white walls of the Canberra gallery. Now she’s still getting used to other people reacting to her work The portrait was something that I’d had just downstairs in a studio for the last number of weeks, and it becomes a really personal thing — so sharing it with a TV crew and the audience, it was really daunting.But it was also absolutely lovely to see what people had to say and how they thought of it.
Jazz’z commission is exhibited at
The National Portrait Gallery of Australia
5 Oct 2026 – Mon 29 March 2027
King Edward Terrace,
Parkes
Canberra
Let Yourself Smile
Duy Thong Vu – Nikon Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards 2026
The Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards Finalists for 2026 have been chosen!!
These are images that celebrate all that is wonderful about the wild animals on this planet. The best images and videos from the 2026 competition are able to be viewed and the Sterna People’s Choice Award Vote is now open, so you can get involved too. Jump to it and cast your vote for your favourite finalist. You could win £500!! We hope you take the time out to enjoy these quirky images and let a smile light up your day!
Kamui - Be Inspired
Sohn Fine Art in the US is dedicated to presenting photography through thoughtfully curated exhibitions. The gallery fosters meaningful dialogue between artists, collectors, and the broader community while showcasing innovative approaches to contemporary visual expression. Currently featuring the photography of Anton Lyalin and Marco Ronconi, two artists whose evocative portraits offer intimate encounters with wild animals. Lyalin and Ronconi both seek out moments of quiet observation – a direct gaze, the turn of a head, the tension of a body at rest, or an animal briefly emerging from its surroundings. Their photographs demonstrate that the portrait tradition extends beyond the human figure. These are not simply photographs of wildlife in their environments but captures that encourage us to consider the individuality and presence of each being.
Kamui | Sohn Fine Art Gallery | Anton Lyalin & Marco Ronconi
October 9 – January 11 | 69 Church Street | Lenox MA
Something To Enter!
In the International Landscape Photographer of the Year Awards the main aim is for you to have one or more of your entries accepted into the Top 101 landscape photographs of the year. Winning a photography competition is part skill and part luck. Skill and artistry are required for obvious reasons, but to be considered the very best from a cast of thousands comes down to what the judging panel ‘likes’. There’s nothing wrong with this approach – we all like the chance to be winners – but it’s also why this competition celebrates the Top 101 landscape photographs, not just first, second and third. Within a portfolio of 101 photographs, judges can reward a wide range of images, from single captures to imaginative composites. In the International Landscape Photographer of the Year Awards they don’t believe it’s up to them to limit what photographers can and can’t do – as long as it is photography. (No AI-generated images are allowed) Enter your best work and see if our judges reward you with a page (or more) in the top 101 landscape photographs of the year awards book. |