Welcome to FlorawithFauna, which contains my class listings and gallery, along with links to my other portfolio sites for the American Society of  Botanical Artists and PNBA.  My drawing and watercolor students can check for upcoming classes, and viewers can peruse the gallery; many of the works are available in giclee prints and notecards.  (Contact me if interested in these.)

I first discovered botanical painting in 1995, in a class taught by Seattle’s Louise Smith.  I was then accepted by the UCSanta Cruz’s post-grad Natural Science Illustration program in 1998 and spent an intense year in Santa Cruz learning various methods of science illustration, and deciding that the research and the art of science illustration strongly appealed to me.  After an internship at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, I returned to the US and began to build my freelance career. Jobs ranged from magazine covers for Herb Companion to several children’s books featuring wolf cubs and young skunks; one of my favorite assignments was to illustrate a series of games, posters, and workbooks based on the Lewis and Clark expedition–I learned a lot about the journey and it offered the opportunity to paint a wide variety of animals, plants, people, and places.

By 2006 I was shifting from freelancing to teaching, beginning with classes at the Center for Urban Horticulture in Seattle, and over the next few years adding classes in other venues; prior to the pandemic, I taught at the UW’s Center for Urban Horticulture, Gage Academy of Art in Seattle,  and gave workshops of my own; I plan to return to that when conditions permit.  I also have an online class with Craftsy.com on beginning nature drawing.  I’ve trimmed my teaching load back a bit to allow more time for my own painting, but intend to continue  classes into the foreseeable future, as they bring contact with some wonderful people and push me to learn and increase my own skills.