The Standing Ovation is an original oil on canvas measuring 100 × 100 cm by Victoria Horkan. Against a luminous ground of spring green washed with gold, clusters of butterflies and sweeping strokes of pink and coral curve in an arc across the upper part of the canvas, mirrored by a second gathering below. Between them a soft ring of open space sits at the centre, so colour seems to rise and swirl around a clearing rather than settle and it carries the eye upward.

The title shapes how the painting is read. This is not a casual drift of wings but a crowd rising to its feet, the butterflies gathered in an act of shared applause. The upward curve of the formations and the bright clearing they encircle suggest a standing ovation translated into colour, a moment of collective recognition in which the wings themselves seem to clap.

Horkan fuses collage and paint on the surface, setting cut photographic butterfly wings patterned in brown, cream and orange among thick strokes of pink, white and green so that real wings and painted ones blur into one another. The green and gold ground is kept thinner and more transparent, giving the composition air and lift and making the rising mass of wings feel freshly lit, as if caught in the first warm light of spring.

The Standing Ovation is an original oil on canvas measuring 100 × 100 cm by Victoria Horkan. This work has been sold. To enquire about similar available works by Victoria Horkan, contact Eclectic Gallery in Fitzrovia, London.