process & history

Botanical nature-printing has been around for centuries. It is a mono-printmaking technique uses fresh flowers and foliage to create hand-pressed, black-ink, life-sized impressions of plants from the vegetation themselves.

Nature printing used to be a functional tool, used by physicians and botanists of old to document interesting and useful plants for study. Now, nature printing is a means of creative expression that merges art, history and botany.

My creative method is consistent across projects of various scopes and scale. I sustainably and respectfully obtained freshly picked plants. The flowers and leaves are inked and hand-pressed onto paper, creating a "fingerprinted" impression. The process is delightfully straightforward.

Nature-printing typically limits the repeated use of a plant, so each piece of art is absolutely unique. For the most part, the technical aspects of the plant, intricacies of detail and venation, remain organically apparent, thus each print is botanically identifiable. Using watercolor, energy is infused into each piece via hand-coloring, returning permanent life to the ephemeral.

If you are interested in taking a workshop and learning how to create nature-prints of the plants in your community, or learning about the history of nature-printing in scientific and commercial enterprises, click here.

A brief history of botanical nature-printing

  • Botanical nature-printing is a very old process

    Prints of club moss and ferns were used to decorate bark cloth by the peoples of Polynesia thirty fiver hundred years ago.

    (Fern impressions on a bark cloths. Illustration: Cave, 2010.Impressions of Nature/ British Library)

  • Print of Bihnam the Christian, AD 1228

    Potentially, one of the earliest European nature print, Bihnam the Christian from AD1228.

    (Illustration: Cave. 2010. Impressions of Nature / British Library)

  • Nature-printing was a functional tool

    This print was part of a collection made by a German physician, Conrad von Butzbach, during his travels in Italy in 1425.

    (Illustration: Cave. 2010. Impressions of Nature / British Library)

  • Leonardo da Vinci's sage leaf

    Folio 197 verso of Leonardo da Vinci's Codice Atlantico.

    (Illustration: Cave. 2010. Impressions of Nature / British Library)

  • Nature-prints on United States currency

    In the 1700s, Benjamin Franklin designed these US Dollar currency sheets featuring nature-prints.

    (Uncut currency. Cave. 2010. Impressions of Nature / British Library)

  • Alois Auer's nature print, 1800s

    A new way to make nature prints

    Digital reproduction of an image by Alois Auer, using a new and improved Nature printing process.

    (Source give a title "Blätter des Mann=Waldfarn" Nature print from Alois Auer (active 1840s-1850s) Public domain)

  • Latifat's creativity

    For me, nature-printing is an opportunity for deep observation and contemplation of the magnificence of the botanical world. I hope my art inspires others to look at plants a little more deeply and wonder…

Resources

Others have put together excellent articles and anthologies on the rich and diverse history of nature printing. You can read more about the evolution of this unique printing process:

  • The Guardian: Impressions of Nature: A History of Nature Printing - A review of an excellent and the most comprehensive book on nature printing that I’ve ever read— by Roderick Cave

  • Nature printing - An article by Nicolai Klimaszewski explaining various technical methods to create nature prints

  • Nature Printing in the 19th Century - A short article by Maura Flannery on a more recent history of nature printing.

  • Nature Printing Society - a non-profit arts organization dedicated to the education, the history and practice of the art of nature printing.