Atypical illustrations
In the Santa Catalina Botanical Garden we asked ourselves, what is the image of the Garden for visitors? What would be the result of these different points of view reflected in an illustration?
We invited different professional fields (illustrators, tattoo artists, artists…) to participate in this unusual project, to draw their particular vision of the Garden.
The result? We started a series of alternative illustrations about the Botanical Garden. Each one of them depicts different concepts about Santa Catalina, those that for its author are the ones that the Garden transmits to them.
Animadas
Iliustrator: Eduardo Padrino (@eduardopadrino)
Participating in this initiative has been very interesting. A project of an atypical nature, I think that virtual exhibitions about botanical gardens are not very common. Personally, it has been a challenge to make an illustration about a garden that I have not been able to visit so far. However, I received the necessary graphic support to end up elaborating my own idea of it, perhaps a bit fanciful.
From minute one, I imagined a mysterious entity acting as the Garden’s guardian. A being that comes out at night and carries a sacred Montpellier leaf that glows in the dark. Above all, I wanted to show a friendly character who would invite you to discover the magic of the place.
Ilustradora: Mrinali Álvarez / @mrinalipr
I have imagined what the Garden would look like on a full moon night. I love nocturnal landscapes and so I decided to make this illustration thinking of the relief created by the moonlight on the flowers and plants framed by the arches of the ancient monastery.
Iltustrator: María Lasa (Mery Raijin)
This work is born from my own memories, from walks in the garden, from the aromas and sounds archived over the years… the vivid colours fixed in my mind, from afternoons of past springs.
Fantastic
Illustrator: Sandra Villarreal Lopez (@cotton_live)
Magic is hidden in the nooks and crannies of time, where life grows, where looking does not mean seeing and where feeling is the only form of dialogue with the nature that surrounds us.
Merging with nature
Illustrator: Sandra Estarrona (Kilipo)
My main canvas for expression is the skin. And what can I express about the Botanical Garden of Santa Catalina?
Nature and the feeling of warmth, cosiness and relaxation that the environment of the Botanical Garden gives to the human being present there. The most primitive union between Nature and the human being. This relationship is represented in my illustration as a ‘drawing of Nature in the Garden on my own skin’.
Illustrator: John Prieto (Entre Lápices y Pinceles)
For this illustration I have based myself on perhaps the most recognisable and representative part of the Garden, the ruins of the palace-convent that bears the same name.
For such a natural environment, the predominant colour could not be other than green in all its shades, splashed with different watercolour stains and over the visible pencil lines, which, as in most of my work, give a glimpse of that initial sketch that preserves the freshness and strength of the graphite stroke. Light and colour for an architecture perfectly integrated with nature.