Botanical Artist

daleen brown

In 2024, Daleen received an RHS Gold Medal as well as Best Artwork on Show and People’s Choice Award in London for her exhibition on indigenous orchids and pollinator interactions. She also received the Best on Show award at ASBA’s 27th Annual International Exhibition at the Society of Illustrators, in New York.

daleen-profile

As a self-taught artist, Daleen’s botanical art journey has developed organically, from starting in 2008 doing scientific illustrations for the University of Pretoria, to creating more traditional botanical art, with her main focus on indigenous orchid species. Her meticulous eye for detail and a scientific understanding of her subject matter underpins her accurate depictions, yet transports her work to becoming a lyrical portrayal of her experience and interaction with the plants she sources in nature. She currently resides in Hillcrest, Kwazulu-Natal.

More About Daleen

Limited Edition Prints

 The authentic series of limited edition prints are produced using Epson Ultrachrome HDX Pigment on Hahnemühle art paper ensuring archivability beyond 100 years when protected behind UV-protected glass. The prints are approved, signed and numbered by the artist, and come with a uniquely coded authentication certificate.

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Workshops

Orchid-workshop

Draw and Paint Orchids

Immerse yourself in the BEAUTIFUL surroundings of Tanya Visser's autumn garden, for three days of botanical art...

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Nature Journaling

Learn to make your own authentic, leather-bound journal

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Nature-journaling

More About Daleen

Due to her varied scope of work, Daleen has been commissioned to a range of interesting and diverse projects. Some prominent projects include a two-year consignment to capture the indigenous flora of the Francolin Conservancy, leading to her first solo exhibition in 2012. She was also commissioned to travel to Cambodia as inspiration to portray the ancient mystique contained in the forest temples. From capturing wildflowers of southeast Botswana, to illustrating a multitude of grasses and other plant families for the National Herbarium of Namibia, there has never been a moment shy of inspiration. Her journey has led her to illustrate scientifically and artistically for journals, books and field guides, wine labels, calendars, and wallpaper. She has work culminating to collections of indigenous tree species and has enjoyed a collaboration with Wild Magazine for over 7 years. Daleen is honoured to have her work featured in the Grootbos Florilegium.

There is a certain allure to being surrounded by nature, to being consumed by the vastness offered by an endless landscape of forest, valley, or mountain slope. Then, finding a delicate little orchid, easily overlooked where it grows tucked between wild grasses, overwhelms me with ecstasy, a realization of the essence of my passion. ‘Entice me with your beauty,’ my mind says.

It is this experience that I try to capture, right there, surrounded by the sounds and smells of a drizzle, a breeze, a baking sun. These sketches made in situ aim to capture something of the soul. Reworking these impressions into final illustrations allows me to relive the encounter, to preserve it for anyone who will see

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