Local Heroes

My next foray into the Ghost project involved a close investigation of the bees in my garden. Although there are true honeybees there, I concentrated on the native varieties. I was amazed to learn that there are so many different types of bees, many of which I had mistakenly thought were some weird type of wasp.
I chose representatives of four main families of bees in my area. There are so many variations within these families, but I chose the ones that were most visually interesting to me.  This painting includes a sweat bee, a mason bee, a bumble bee and a miner bee. They all are important pollinators. They make honey for their young and live in solitary pairs.