Its all about plants

I don't have any new work to post today but I thought I'd collect all of my botanical themed pieces and present them here. My alter ego is a botanist and I actually had a double major as an undergraduate in art and biology. I went on to pursue botany for a higher degree but, of course, the art came along for the ride.

This still life features a bunch of realistic flowers, fruits and veggies. I just love the tulips--they got me started on this piece. i thought they looked like the very traditional old fashioned dutch varieties that caused so much avarice and turmoil.


Here is an entirely fanciful flower--straight from a dream image that I had one night. I had a smirk on my face the whole time I was putting this one together. Very satisfying. This piece is from my "Inner Landscape" series which are all metaphorical. A unifying theme is the black frame.





This is my very first flower piece. Its roughly based on a very botanical scheme of a generic flower that clearly demonstrates all of the parts. I draw this sort of diagram for my students all the time. Fittingly, it hangs in my office in the Biology Department at UCF. Its official name is "Wallflower renaissance" but I think of it as my inside-out flower. As in: live your life from the inside out rather than the outside in.


This passionflower is not totally anatomically correct but I felt moved to add in some extra parts for aesthetic balance. I'm guessing that if you're not a botanist, you likely can't tell what is incorrect. I love the appearance and symbolism of passionflowers--I've used them as design elements in another piece too.


These beauties are pretty correct and are based on some night blooming Brugmansias, or Angel's Trumpets, blooming in my yard here in Florida. I posted about them before but in the interest of thoroughness, I've got them up here again.