Order $75 or more and get FREE SHIPPING Dismiss

An independent publisher of web and print media. Printed ♻️ in the 🇺🇸.

Back Country Press logo

Cart

  • Classes
    • Arborist CEUs
  • Products
    • Books
    • Gift Card
    • Book Resources
    • Sale Items
    • Posters
    • ID Guides
    • Free Downloads
    • Hats
  • Authors
  • News
    • Podcast
  • About
    • Calendar
    • Vendor Sales
    • Newsletter
    • Scholarships
    • Find Our Books
  • My account
    • Orders
    • Downloads
    • Checkout
    • Lost Password
    • Login

Robert Childs

March 31, 2020 by Backcountry Press 1 Comment

The Watercolor-Butterfly-Nature-Loving-Guy

Robert Childs recently retired from 30 years of teaching science including nine in rural Missouri and the rest at Eureka High School. His life-long goal is connecting kids and adults to the natural world and, when not doing that, he spends his time studying the sciences and exploring other countries. His wife Delores Haskamp, who also loves these interests and activities, is also a huge part of his life.    

How did you develop a passion for natural history?

Robert Childs and Butterflies
Robert Childs and his original artwork

Growing up sort of free range in rural Missouri formed the basis of a lifelong fascination with the natural world.  That interest led to a degree in Wildlife Management which required me to take a variety of courses on natural history, including entomology.  Once I started teaching, that background also afforded me the pleasure of being able to rotate through all of the science classes normally taught in high school, and to create several less common secondary courses, including an Environmental Field Biology class, and taking 9 groups of 20+ students on science-oriented field trips in Belize and Guatemala.  In all of my teaching, I tried to make connections between the students and our world (and universe). Thirty years of those efforts reinforced my passion for natural history.

What inspired you to create the poster

The butterfly poster was a way for me to accomplish three things: learn to better identify local butterflies, learn how to use watercolors more effectively, and to connect people with nature.  I have been recording all butterfly sightings on our property for a number of years, and had discovered that the small and medium size species are difficult to identify without having at least one of two things – an excellent memory of complex designs and associated names, or a photograph of the butterfly to compare to online or field guide photos. I don’t have the excellent memory so I resorted to taking photographs.  To imbed the patterns and names better, and to practice nailing colors in my art, I decided to paint all 17 species of our yard butterflies.  We consulted local entomologist Peter Haggard to find out what butterflies live in this area but hadn’t visited our property and added six more species for the poster.

Why did you choose to use watercolor instead of another medium?

I had done some drawing in college, but teaching took up my spare time until retirement.  Once I took it up again and wanted to start adding color to my ink drawings, I took a watercolor course from the excellent Arcata artist Alan Sanborne and fell down that rabbit hole.  Color pencils or acrylics would probably have been a better choice for the fine detail work of butterflies, but I really wanted to practice with something that would work with ink. 

What is one of your favorite facts about butterflies?

The fact that Monarch butterflies are born in Missouri and then fly south and across the Gulf of Mexico to their parents’ birthplace, a grove of trees in western Mexico 2,000 miles away—a place they’ve never been—is incredible.  Along with that, I’ve had a lifelong fascination with the adaptations that allow brightly-colored, yummy morsels to flap around in the sky, seemingly oblivious to the many predators that love to eat insects.  To me, butterflies are the single least intuitive orders of Animalia to manage to exist on this crazy planet.

What more would you like to learn about butterflies?

I’m very interested in helping these fragile beauties survive human’s impact on Earth and I am currently learning about their nectaring and larval food plants.

What do you hope the poster inspires in those who purchase it?

The idea that my neighbors across Humboldt County can walk into their home and identify a butterfly that they’ve seen, without wading through the field guide pages of similar-looking species found on the West Coast, gives me incredible pleasure.  I’m hoping that it will inspire them to plant butterfly gardens, and to delve deeper into our natural world.  I’m convinced that intimate connections with nature are crucial to happy, well-adjusted human beings and societies.  

Robert Childs presents for the North Coast Chapter of the California Native Plant Society

Filed Under: Butterfly Poster Tagged With: Butterflies, Humboldt County

Comments

  1. Anna McBride says

    April 6, 2020 at 6:35 pm

    It was great seeing you once more! Anna Stockman-McBride

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Events

Join Our Newsletter, get 10% off

* indicates required

Our most recent Podcast

Trivia Challenge: Wildflowers of the Klamath Mountains

https://backcountrypress.com/podcast-player/21109/trivia-challenge-wildflowers-of-the-klamath-mountains.mp3

Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 19:11 | Recorded on July 8, 2022

Recent Posts

  • Feed June 1, 2025
  • The Evolution of Trees of California: From Jepson to Today May 20, 2025
  • Mapping the Hidden Forest May 2, 2025
  • Discover California’s Native Trees: A Guide to the Arboreal Wonders of the Golden State April 26, 2025
  • Second Edition of Hiking Humboldt Volume 2 by Rees Hughes Now Available! March 2, 2025

Product tags

Botany California Cascadia Conifers Desert ecology ectotherms explorations field guide Fire Fire Ecology Forest pathogens Fungi Geology Hiking Hiking Guide Humboldt County Identification Card Invertebates Klamath Mountains Klamath Mountians Lassen Volcanic National Park Literature Mammals mushrooms Natural History Oregon Pacific Crest Trail pathogens Pines Plant Exploring Plants redwood forest Rivers road guide sea vegetables Seaweed Trees Trinity Alps Vernal Pools Washington wildflowers

RSS Follow Backcountry Press updates

GIft Card from BCP

bookstore