Art Nouveau Watercolor ACEOs | Bugs, Blooms & Small Works
Table of Contents
My First ACEO Watercolor Series
I almost stopped at one.
The tiger swallowtail was everything it was supposed to be, golden wings tipped in black, settled into the warm coral and pink of a lantana bloom I had actually watched it visit one quiet afternoon at the botanical gardens. I painted the light the way I remembered it. I filled every corner of that tiny card. It was good.
But it didn’t feel like me.
So I tried again. Same butterfly, same bloom, but this time I let the morning in. A golden frame, flowing and unhurried. Deep blue clouds still heavy from the night’s rain. And just there, at the edge of the horizon… the sun beginning to remember itself.
That painting changed everything about this series.
This past month I joined a community art challenge hosted by a wonderful group of artists, @heathermuellerdesign, @jillian.nichole.illustration, @kim_ko_design, @palindromeart, @megpieprint, and @shellypenko, whose #bugsinbloom2026 prompts sent me into some of the most joyful and unexpected painting I have done in a long time. Four prompts. Four tiny worlds. And somewhere along the way… a series was born.
The format was new for me too. These are ACEOs, Art Cards Editions and Originals, tiny paintings that fit in the palm of your hand, 2.5 by 3.5 inches, the size of a trading card. I have been wanting to explore small works for a while now, and this challenge felt like the perfect invitation. Watercolor on cotton, art nouveau framing, and a quiet intention to capture light in the smallest of spaces.
Butterfly & Lantana… The Watercolor ACEO That Started It All
The tiger swallowtail was everything it was supposed to be, golden wings tipped in black, settled into the warm coral and pink of a lantana bloom I had actually watched it visit one quiet afternoon at the botanical gardens. I painted the light the way I remembered it. I wanted the lantana to feel like it was glowing, warm and alive in every corner of that tiny card.
But something was missing… that ineffable sense of me in it. So I tried again. Same butterfly, same bloom, but this time I let the morning in. A golden art nouveau frame, flowing and unhurried. Deep blue clouds still heavy from the night’s rain. And just there, at the edge of the horizon… the sun beginning to remember itself.
That second painting is where this series truly began.
Firefly & Moonflower… A Nocturnal Watercolor ACEO
The moonflower doesn’t wait for morning. She turns her face to the moon instead, wide open and luminous, as though she has captured its glow and made it her own. I know this flower well, she grows in my own tea garden, climbing a swirling pole with a quiet kind of determination, reaching always upward. I have watched her open in the evening air, unhurried and certain of herself.
I wanted that feeling of the night being full rather than empty, a deep muted purple sky swirling with soft mist, little stars glittering like scattered diamonds in the distance. And then, just above her… a firefly. His golden light drifting down, barely grazing the white of her petals. Two small things finding each other in the dark.
The art nouveau frame here is softer than the butterfly’s, a muted gold with a gentle shimmer, quieter, like the night asked it to keep its voice down.
Jewel Beetle & Cosmos… Hope in a Small Watercolor Painting
There is a moment after a hard rain when the world goes very still and very soft, and the light begins to find its way back in, tentatively at first, like it isn’t quite sure of its welcome. That is the world this little jewel beetle lives in.
He is extraordinary up close, blues and greens shifting into hints of red and orange depending on how the light catches him, like he is wearing something ancient and precious. He rests on a pale pink cosmos, everything around them wrapped in a thick soft fog of blues and purples… quiet, muffled, waiting. But in the upper corner the mist begins to thin, and gentle streams of light come kissing through, warm and golden and unhurried.
The border leans yellow into green, a quiet bridge between the beetle’s warmth and the cool dreaming world behind him. Just waiting, as I always am, for the rainbow to show up.
Grasshopper & Sunflower… Art Nouveau Watercolor in Full Light
And then, finally… the sun.
The grasshopper knows. He is perched right at the heart of it, settled onto a sunflower that has lifted her face straight upward, dew still trembling on her petals from the night before. She knew it was coming. They both did.
The sun arrives in golden linework, circles rippling outward from the center like a quiet announcement, radial lines stretching into the sky the way light does when it means it. The grasshopper glows with it, his green deepened and gilded all at once. Blue clouds frame the edges, and the border answers them in deep rich blues and greens, a deliberate contrast that makes the gold burn even brighter.
Where the butterfly painting whispered of possibility… this one simply says, here. It arrived. Look.
Small Works, Big Wonder
Four prompts. Five paintings. One series I didn’t know I needed to make.
These little cards taught me something about working small… that limitations have a way of focusing the heart. There was no room for anything unnecessary. Every brushstroke had to mean something. And in that smallness I found something I want to keep exploring.
The full collection is available in my portfolio, and each painting has its own story waiting for you there. I hope they bring a little wonder into your day, the way bugs in bloom brought wonder back into mine.
Every ACEO Arrives as a Keepsake
ACEOs, Art Cards Editions and Originals, have a wonderful tradition in the art world. Measuring just 2.5 by 3.5 inches, the size of a standard trading card, they have been collected, traded, and treasured by art lovers for decades. Their small size makes them wonderfully accessible… and surprisingly frameable. Standard ACEO frames are easy to find, so if one of these tiny worlds calls to you, it can absolutely find a place on your wall.
Each painting arrives nestled in a vellum envelope and mounted on a pearl card backing printed with my own dragonfly drawing and Raeanna Tilly Fine Art… because the presentation should feel as intentional as the painting itself. From the first brushstroke to the moment you hold it in your hands, every detail is considered with care.
These are not just tiny paintings. They are tiny treasures, meant to be kept. If one of these tiny worlds is calling to you, visit my shop and let it find its way home to you.
Tiger Swallowtail & Lantana… Art Nouveau Watercolor ACEO
Firefly & Moonflower… Art Nouveau Watercolor ACEO
Raeanna
Raeanna loves her home AT FORESTS EDGE. Cultivating life with a big family in America. She is a Watercolor Artist, Writer, Gardener & a Certified Herbalist.
