Renaissance artist Guiseppe Arcimboldo painted a surreal version of a still-life, by creating portraits that portrayed the face of the cognoscenti—through its table, gardens, and natural world.
Jenny Lee Fowler's paper cuttings are distinctly modern, meanwhile honoring the legacy of early American portraiture, and the natural elements that are her media.
At age 72, 18th-century British artist Mary Delany began her floral collages. In an age of decoupage and floral paintings, her intricate paper art was a nod to both, and a new style of botanic art.
Built with mud, rocks, and plants, the extraordinary sculptures by sister and brother team Sue Hill and Pete Hill are living figures that suggest a fairy tale in the undergrowth.
Jonathan Singer's botanic photographs are collected in the large-format book Botanica Magnifica. Shot on a Hasselblad in low light, the pictures recall the detail of early plant engravings, and the dramatic style of Old Master paintings.
Commissioned by the city of London to replace a dying sycamore tree, the Traffic Light Tree has 75 signals that bewilder birds and confuse motorists—doing everything but directing traffic.
A tribute album for a botanist? Carl Linnaeus—a botanist who named pretty plants for his friends and ugly plants for his enemies—knew the power of a name, and he would certainly be pleased that this modern Swedish folk music album bears his.
Botanic motifs flourished in Victorian design, and typography was no exception. Ornate filigree details and calligraphic embellishments were often designed as stylized flowers, leaves, and even trees, around the alphabet characters. We look at the story behind several typefaces inspired by the natural world.
