Another lil' quick cell phone snap of my work in progress. Working away at this peice today, its A1 in size so quite a lot of work. It is coming together as a collage of different dream images, memories and fragments.

Cabinet of Natural Curiosities

 Above: Seba comissioned illustrations of his unrivaled natural speciman collection for his published book, The Cabinet of Natural Curiosities, published in 1731.


I have a long love of scientific and botanical illustration. I recently acquired a copy of Albertus Seba's Cabinet of Natural Curiosities published by Taschen. It is a beyond beautiful book, full of incredible engravings cataloging the zoologist's observations of the natural world. Being an illustrator on an expedition to discover new fauna and flora would have been my dream job, if only I was born about 500 years earlier.

The composition of each page is beautiful and clear and harmonious, I am inspired by it. The detail in each illustration is so clean, and the depictions are not overly representational and naturalistic, which totally ignites my imagination.

Quick cell phone snap of my new little Venus Fly Trap drawing. I had a few pet venus fly traps as a young person and was constantly fascinated by them, but I could never keep them alive.

They always seemed so much more sentient, monstorous and forboding than regular houseplants! I was always too scared to touch their trigger fangs and make them close too, such an irrational Little Shop of Horrors induced fear.

 I once killed one by feeding it flys I had pre-killed with Mortein.

Another pencil drawing work in progress- carnivorous plants are fascinating and strange.