While drawing plants for botanists, it was inevitable that I would develop a great interest in growing them. I am as much a gardener as an illustrator, cultivating unusual plants in my garden that I want to draw, and drawing interesting plants as I watch them grow throughout their life cycles. My skills and knowledge have yielded wonderful opportunities to illustrate plants for horticulturally minded projects, including New York Times Garden Q & A, John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds catalog, the memoir Our Life in Gardens, and a useful dictionary, in A Botanist’s Vocabulary, co-authored with Dr. Susan Pell in 2016. 

My gardening and illustration work has led to encounters with uncommon and visually appealing plants that I translate into a very specialized art form - copper etchings. I create and handprint limited edition prints of subjects ranging from tiny alpine wildflowers to cultivated Asian woody plants. 

Well recognized for my art and illustration work, I have won awards, most notably Jill Smythies Award from the Linnaean Society of London and Award for Excellence in the Service of Botanical Art from American Society of Botanical Artists. I enjoy offering public lectures about botanical art and I teach occasional workshops. I am an active member of ASBA, editing and writing for the journal and serving as Institutional Member Liaison.