This unique painting features one of my favorite insects: the cicada. This specific one is based on a 17 year cicada, and was a celebration of the rare event in 2024 of two broods of cicadas emerging at once. This was Brood XIII (17 year) and Brood XIX (13 year), whose synchronous emergence only happens every 221 years.

Periodical cicadas are a unique group of insects in the genus Magicicada, and are found throughout the United States and Canada. They emerge either every 13 years or every 17 years, as opposed to most cicada species which emerge every year. There are seven species of periodical cicadas, which are further categorized into broods based on their location and when they emerge. Each brood only emerges once every 13 or 17 years, but every year at least one brood will emerge somewhere throughout their range. The broods are localized to a small portion of their specie’s range, and usually only one brood will appear in a particular location, but on occasion populations can overlap.

Cicadas spend most of their life below ground as a nymph, getting their nutrients from tree roots. Then, they emerge from the ground in the late spring or early summer, where they attach to a vertical surface and shed their skin one last time to emerge as an adult. They are all fairly small in size, and have a black body, with bright red eyes, and clear wings with orange veins. They only live for a few weeks in their adult form, just enough time to find a mate, lay eggs, before passing on. Their familiar sound can be heard throughout the eastern and central United States, a staple of summer outdoor life.

Seeing a brood of 17 year cicadas emerging and chattering in the trees is certainly an amazing experience! They are a beautiful and colorful insect, and while they are noisy they are harmless to humans; they cannot sting or bite. Although they attach to the tree roots with their mouth parts to extract the sap from trees and shrubs, they do not cause any injury to the plants, and are not known to spread any diseases.

To honor this unique species, I have painted this portrait of one. It is painted with acrylics on a 11×14 inch wood panel in June 2024, and is titled “Magic Cicada” as a reference to their genus name. I kept the body colors as close to the real coloration as possible, only increasing the saturation. So, for the black areas of the body I used purples, blues, and teals. The orange veins of the wings and the legs were painted with bright orange, yellow, and hot pink, and the eyes are bright red. For the background I wanted a greenish color, as an impressionistic interpretation of the foliage where you would normally see an adult cicada. So I used a base of teal green and brushstrokes of blues, purples, and yellows over the top to give it some texture. The ground he is standing on was originally red and hot pink, but I went over it with some teal and blue and purple, and it gave this unique effect which I think looked cool. It also gave him a ground to stand on.

This original painting is for sale. If you are interested in purchasing it, please contact me.