10 Artists Who Celebrate Nature Through Their Work
ByLaure LansonneurIris by Diana Malivani.
Nature has always been a great inspiration to artists - from cave drawings of animals, to contemporary artists working today. Artists have depicted nature as a setting to express their inner feelings, forever changing the course of art. Post-impressionist artist Paul Cézanne once said,
“Painting from nature is not copying the object; it is realizing one’s sensations. Treat nature in terms of the cylinder, the sphere, the cone, everything in proper perspective.”
The Artling presents 10 contemporary artists who use a range of media, from photography to graphite pencil, to capture the essence of nature and express their connection with the environment!
Nives was born in Croatia and graduated in painting from the Ljubljana Academy of Fine Arts. Today, Nivec teaches art in private schools and runs art courses and workshops in Ljubljana. He is influenced by natural forms such as plants, flowers and trees.
"The source of my inspiration is the fascination with rhythms created by a variety of forms in nature. To emphasize all these rhythms, I usually place my motifs into carefully defined cut-out compositions in which they vary from image to pattern or offer close look to inner spaces. I am also very interested in ornament as a way of visual expressing of ideas; at this point, I explore the relation between a realistic and abstract concepts and between image and pattern." - Nives Palmić
Tokyo-born photographer and graduate of Bigakko School of Arts, Nishimura draws inspiration from the natural world and the influential works of Japanese photographers Takuma Nakahira and Daido Moriyama. His works explores themes of balance, light, and darkness through innovative techniques.
In his Life series, Nishimura captures the elegance of ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arrangement, using natural light and a Hasselblad camera to convey the delicate interplay between life and death. He developed the photographic technique 'Scangram', with his award-winning Blue Flower series, producing luminous, dream-like images that are cool, erotic, and mysterious.
Nishimura's works, celebrated in both Eastern and Western art circles, are part of prestigious collections and have been featured internationally, including at Hermes in Paris.
Working in black stoneware and porcelain, Hogge crafts her one-off artworks in her studio in East London. Grounded by years of expertise in ceramics, she takes an instinctive, visceral approach to each piece, painstakingly sculpting every petal and anther by hand so that no two flowers are identical. Her creations are organic and ornate, stylized and purposeful but with an element of spontaneity.
The pieces are fired at high temperatures transforming the porcelain into ossified shades of white, whilst the black stoneware creates velvety dark counterparts. Striking as singular statement pieces, these can also be grouped to create wall installations. While the porcelain brings subtlety, the stoneware brings drama.
"Inspired by my passion for all things botanical, and influences as diverse as Frida Kahlo, Georgia O’Keefe and Marianne North, I breathe life into my clay in the form of dahlias, chrysanthemums, agapanthus, daisies, agaves and roses, and I will happily try my hand at any flower!" - Vanessa Hogge
Malivani was born in the former Soviet Union in 1976 and is a Doctor of Medicine (M.D., Ph.D.) by training. Her body of work is characterized by a variety of nature themes like flowers, still life, gardens and landscapes, animal and birds, marine life, among others.
Her main medium is oil on canvas, using a palette knife. She has won numerous awards and her artworks are held in the collections of several national art museums in the Russian Federation, located in the cities of Sochi, Belgorod, Saransk, and Novokuz. Malivanis is also an author and illustrator of children’s books published in Russian, English, French and German.
After dabbling in the publishing and advertising industries, kuanth answered his calling and became a freelance illustrator in 2002. He loves old stuff with a history — flea markets are his favorite haunts for hidden gems and inspirations. He also appreciates all things handmade especially crafts passed down from generation to generation.
His New World series was inspired by the pandemic where he imagined a world after a reset - a world that revives with bizarre-looking plants in all forms and shapes, seemingly menacing, but full of hope.
During the pandemic, he questioned, "What kind of a world were we living in? What does it show us during this pandemic? As the world shuts down with suspension of major industrial and human activities, pollutions - air, water and earth - are greatly reduced."
"Levels of harmful gases like carbon dioxide have dropped so much that air quality in many cities improved significantly. Marine stress is alleviated as cruise liners and maritime activities came to a halt; seawater became cleaner without commercial contamination. The Earth does not need humans who created all those chaos."
Johnson is an artist whose work seamlessly blends his profound love for botanical forms with a deep introspection into personal and generational themes. Trained in figurative sculpture at The New York Academy of Art and under the late sculptor T.J. Dixon in San Diego, Johnson initially focused on figure sculpture, developing a keen eye for form and detail.
Over time, his artistic exploration expanded into the realm of botanical sculptures, inspired by a desire to experiment with convex forms and closed shapes, such as apples and walnuts, symbolizing themes of self-protection and containment.
This evolving focus on botanical forms reflects a broader introspection into personal growth and generational trauma - a subject Johnson addresses subtly through his art. He seeks to engage audiences with visually striking pieces that offer a gateway to deeper discussions on challenging topics.
Multimedia artist Estrada was born in Mexico in 1981 and moved to the United States in 1989. Her childhood was heavily influenced by her training in classical piano and violin, which continues to inspire her aesthetic today. She attended Santa Monica College and received her Certificate of Photography in 2009.
Estrada’s broad scope of work is a reflection of memories that she has shaped into her reality. A seeker of the spiritual, Estrada believes that every piece of art created is a self-portrait, a physical expression of that inner nameless world our soul inhabits.
Using photography as her main visual medium, the sound of the camera's click offers her the perfect confluence between the real and the ethereal. A multifarious artist, Estrada’s creative expression encompasses traditional photography, mixed media, sculpture, installation, and film.
Winograd is a Colombian photographer based in Bogotá . After studying Latin American History, he completed the documentary photography program at the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York.
His work explores the relationship between people and their environment, narratives of social conflict, and the dense interconnections of the Colombian landscape. He occasionally creates portraits of trees.
His work has been exhibited in New York, Berlin, Mexico City, and Bogotá, and published in different media, including The New York Times and The New Republic.
Alexandre first fell in love with photography in 2000 while traveling around São Paulo in Brazil. With a disposable camera in his bag, he started to record every corner of urban landscape among this wonderfully strange, enormous city.
He decided to turn his passion for photography after obtaining his PhD and dedicated his life to recording the silent aesthetic of this beautiful world.
Alexandre doesn't take souvenir pictures but timeless, pure natural scenery instead. He is fascinated by the temporality of photography, which is very brief in the act of shooting but strangely flexible once it is observed.
Tatiana Kononenko, known as KONOKO, is a contemporary French painter born in Voronezh in the former Soviet Union. She currently lives and works in Provence, France, where she continues to develop her artistic practice.
She combines oil paints with oil batons, applying them in sequential layers to develop shapes and colors. The multi-layered painting enhances light and color contrasts, deepening the viewer's perception of space and immersing them more into the scene.
Her works were selected for the “French Artists” section of the Salon des Artistes Français at the Salon Art Capital 2023 in Paris, and for the “Heritage and Innovation“ section of the 120th Salon d'Automne 2023/2024, also in Paris.
Launay is a French artist born in 1954 who lives and works in Paris. She started her career in photography with L’Oréal, taking images of cosmetic products, models and fashion scenes in France and California.
She later joined SIPA Agency where she showcased her private collections of nature and landscapes. Critics liken her pictures to figurative paintings, which inspired her to explore paint as a medium. In 2016, she held her first solo exhibition where she blended photography with her paintings.
Since the dawn of art history, nature has served as an enduring source of inspiration for artists, who have sought to capture its beauty and complexity through various mediums. Today, contemporary artists continue this tradition, reimagining nature in innovative and captivating ways that reflect both their personal visions and the ever-evolving relationship between humanity and the natural world. These modern interpretations offer fresh perspectives and creative expressions that push the boundaries of traditional art forms.
To explore a diverse range of original contemporary artworks inspired by nature on The Artlings collection, click here.
Join our Trade Program to source for artworks from other genres and make full use of our services.
Any views or opinions in the post are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the company or contributors.
