Zoë shows her art creation.

Zoë painted our first hive as part of her art exam exhibition. It earned her top marks and attracted a get deal of attention.

The hive is seen here featured in a display at the Devon County Show.

The new larger hive type at original Big.DBs were the first to be painted following a theme.

Each of the seven doors is graduated through a colour spectrum. The numbers are bright and shiny. Bees fly across the box, rest on the numbers, and wait their turn to go through the door.

Hive art; Big.1-7

Hive art; Big.Hse

The exception to this was Big.Hse  For this one Zoë created a multi-storey dwelling with windows and an opaque side panel to give an idea of the activity inside.

The bees you see flying is a swarm moving into the garden.

Orch.DBs were the next to be upgraded into larger boxes. Named after the old orchard in which they live, their hives depict the the apples on the tree in front of their apiary space.

This time Zoë graduated the colour scheme to imitate the ripening apple.

Hive art; Orch.1-5

New boxes in 2020 were transformed by hive art and occupied at Big.DBs

Main background is followed by detailing.

Lovingly hand painted

Last year's boxes underwent transformation into hive art. Much respect and thanks to Zoë's artistic talent.

Intricate detailing down to individual colouring of pollen covered stamens.

Colours are built up in layers. This is comprised of blending paint to produce the desired effect and hue.

​Intricately detailed

Zoë's theme for these is a hybrid flower, with each box displaying a different coloured petal.

​Small corner flowers attended by bees are based upon the delicate Forget-Me-Not.

Painted by hand; ZAMart

Beautifully finished

The colour red is visually attractive to us, but not recognised by the bees. Which is why the emphasis is on blue and yellow hues.

After over a decade of use located outside in the salty atmosphere of coastal Devon, many of the original large boxes have cracked right through and are beyond perfect repair. We decided to replace all of boxes 1 to 7 keeping the same round doorway design but with some improvements for accessibility and aesthetics. Once again Zoë worked her artist's magic to transform them from plain boxes into beautiful bee homes.

The new design moves the doorway to the flat side of the box. This orientates for manipulations to be carried out standing behind. Hive identity numbers now appear on the recessed side.

We retained the illusion of bees flying into the box through a partially open door and bees resting on the numbers. The flower theme from last years boxes is repeated on the numbered side with delicate fuchsia type blooms. Varnish protects the finished pictures. 

​Big.4 looking good in their new box.

Over time the exposed cedar will turn a silvery colour and the pictures will stand out behind their protective varnish


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Big.5 & 7 looking good in their new boxes.

The doors follow the same graduated colour wheel scheme as before. 

Of course the bees aren't fooled by their giant sized images attempting to get in.
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If you would like to see more of Zoë's art including her 3D work, pencil sketches, commissions, and tattoo designs.
Click her link =>   https://zamart.weebly.com/