Botanical Art Painting Ideas

If you want to be inspired to paint, then you’ll love this epic list of botanical art painting ideas. We narrowed down our top choices and put together our best-of-the-best selection to give you 200 botany art inspirations that will spark your creativity and bring art into your life. So, if you're ready to delight your inner artist, dive in!

We start our list with botany painting that you can do right at home–some of which on surfaces that you never thought twice to use as an art medium before. Keep reading until the end for some mind-blowing inspirations that you absolutely need to try with your art supplies.

What is Botanical art?

Botanical illustration, botany painting or botany artis the art of depicting the form, color, and details of plant species, frequently in watercolor paintings. They must be scientifically accurate but often also have an artistic component and may be printed with a botanical description in books, magazines, and other media or sold as a work of art.

What's the difference between botanical art, botanical illustration and flower painting?

The emphasis is on the scientific record and botanical accuracy to enable identification of a plant. Conventional botanical illustrations are made from live plants or herbarium specimens to illustrate a botanical text (e.g. an article or monograph). Typically, the illustration will depict ALL relevant aspects of the plant, including the life cycle, that enable accurate identification. It frequently includes relevant dissections for species identification. Over 90% of botanical illustrations are monochrome (drawn in pen and ink or digitally) to permit publication without the expense of color reproduction.

Botanical art

Artwork is always scientifically and botanically correct but not necessarily complete. More emphasis is placed on the aesthetic value of the plant or flower but without the requirement for ALL the information required by the botanists. Artwork is frequently in color (on a plain background). It may also include a record of the plant growing in its natural habitat. Botanical art may form part of a project and contribute to a flora - records made of plants in a geographical location or garden.

Flower painting and "plant portraits"

The emphasis is much more about a pleasing painting and much less on the botanical accuracy or natural colors or the various features of the flower. Flowers are often found in vases sitting within a still life context - or in a garden or the countryside. The style of painting may be more impressionistic, colors and/or relative size may not be entirely true. Informing or educating for scientific purposes are not of primary importance.

We hope you enjoyed this curated collection of Botanical art painting ideas. We are so excited for you to start (or continue) on your creative journey. We hope you love every moment exploring the joyful experience of painting.

Happy painting and art creating!