Recently I visited the studio of Monika de Vries Gohlke, a German born botanical artist who has applied the art of printmaking to botanical portraiture. Monika works from real life specimens while engraving her copper plates from her home garden in Brooklyn as well as from inspirational plant-life found at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Her work is infused with a European sensibility with a strong consideration for composition and romanticism, referencing the great German, Dutch and French 18th and 19th century master botanical artists. Especially with the application of aquatint engraving, the dichotomy of sharpness in the line and edge with softness of subject constantly challenges the eye and feeds the emotions. These are masterfully printed original works on paper with a unique stylistic interpretation, definitely contemporary and distinctly her own.
