DEBORAH MONTGOMERIE
BIO
I was born in the UK but currently live in a little seaside town on Whidbey Island, an artist’s and writer’s haven in the far NW corner of Washington State, USA. I have been involved in the arts one way or another for most of my life, originally training as a textile designer. Several years ago I discovered the joy of painting plant life. I became interested in portraying the plant alone without any other distractions. In 2012 I applied to do a distance learning course with the Society of Botanical Artists (SBA) in the UK to understand more of the techniques of botanical painting & after graduating in March of 2015 I am still more than ever entranced by the botanical world. I am also a member of the American Society of Botanical Artists (ASBA) & the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators. I consider myself mainly a contemporary botanical artist & use botanical art with its scientific heritage & focus on accuracy in all aspects of a plant’s structure. I usually work in 3 main media: graphite, pen & ink, watercolor. I have a passion for reaching out to find the world’s most interesting paints that are suitable for botanicals. I paint in many layers using fine brushes to gradually capture the color of the subject. My choice of subjects are many: typically flowers, fruit and vegetables but I also have passion to depict subjects that have character such as seeds, pods, roots etc. I also like to dissect & use my digital microscope to study the subject to understand its ‘inner structures’. Lately I have spread my interests into the natural science world as a recent piece, Studies of Willow Pond Nests exhibited.