My Artistic Evolution & Journey | What inspired me to become a modern Botanical Artist

It all started in the fall of 2018 when I was living part time in the countryside. At the the time I was in my late 40’s and worked as a television and film editor for almost 20 years. While in the country, I would hike every day and began to start collecting leaves on the trail. They were so perfect in colour, shape and intricate forms, I was in awe of natures perfection. I wanted to memorialize them somehow and began drawing black in drawings on deckled vintage paper which I dyed in tea for that antique look. I analysed the leaf veigns and structure and came up with my own stylized, abstract, almost zentangle leaf drawings using a very fine point micron pen.

I became so immersed with this new hobby and decided to create an Etsy shop, where I sell to this day. By 2020 I was working full time as a modern botanical illustrator and started creating nature art using color. First I hand draw and paint elements, say a flower, leaves ect…and import the to procreate (a drawing app for ipad)

These are some of the abstract leaf designs I originally created at the beginning of my artistic journey. I still create leaf skeleton drawings using detailed fine lines and pointilism (or pointilist) technique to this day, Pointilism is using hundreds sometimes thousads of tiny dots to create shading. Today also create bright, vibrant coloured flora (and sometimes fauna, mainly birds) artworks. I call my style “expressionist modern botanical” as I have not found anything quite like what I do.. They are basically intricate leaf line drawings on beautiful and textured washi and other handmade papers. At times I add gold leaf to my work as well.