Painting Rare Plants

When Chris Thorogood was a kid, he’d grow unusual plants in his room. Then he’d draw and paint them. Today he’s a botanist and botanical illustrator at the University of Oxford Botanic Garden in England. Botanists are scientists who study plants. Thorogood travels throughout Southeastern Asia studying rare plant life. He illustrates plants for books, magazines, and research papers.

Chris Thorogood: Botanists have always shown the living world through illustration. Before photography, scientists included illustrations with their descriptions of new species in research journals. Illustrations can show a plant’s tiny details in a precise way that photos cannot—like diagrams. We still illustrate new species today.

CT: I’ve visited some of the most remote parts of the Philippines and Indonesia. The flowers I study can be difficult to find. I often rely on local foresters who live near the areas where they grow. They know these plants very well. In 2022, I set out to find a particular species of corpse flower called Rafflesia banaoana in the Philippines. Rafflesia is an extraordinary plant. It’s the largest flower in the world. I stayed with the Banao tribe, an Indigenous community. They took me deep into the forest, trekking for days through very difficult landscape. When we finally found the flower, it was an emotional experience. I’m told that I was the first person from outside the Philippines ever to set eyes on it.

CT: I love painting from life if I have a specimen in front of me. But that can be difficult because I often work in tropical, very remote places. I take photographs, observe the plant, and draw sketches. At home, I put them all out in front of me and make a mood board. Then I paint! I use oil paints if I want to capture an environment. The oil paintings can take three months. Oil paint can take weeks to dry, and I work in layers. If I want to show lots of plants together on a white background, then I’ll use watercolor, which is a traditional medium for botanical illustration. For a scientific paper, I’ll use pen and ink.

CT: We tend to think of “life” as animal life, with plants as a sort of green backdrop. But we have to remember that plants do more than create the habitats where animals live. Plants are alive and they are essential for life to exist! Plants create the air that we breathe. We also use plants to make clothing, food, and medicines. Right now, many plants are in trouble. More than two in five plant species are threatened with extinction. It’s important to study plants because we can only care for the species we know about.

CT: I would encourage people to go to a garden or park. Anywhere you look, whether it’s on a tree or under a stone or on a wall, you’ll find incredible nature. If you look closely, you’ll see something remarkable.