California-based visual artist Andie Thrams works in wild forests creating paintings and artist’s books that explore mystery, reverence and delight, while also grappling with the vanishing habitats of our era. Her tree and forest-inspired art is informed by the lineages of illuminated manuscripts, natural history field journals and chance-based art.  She was featured in Bedford Gallery’s Captured: Specimens in Contemporary Art in 2012, an exhibition which explored contemporary art that transforms natural materials in new and exciting ways.

Working in gouache, watercolor, pencil, and natural materials, Thrams paints in the woods, often working with twigs dipped in ink. Working in this way—in the forest with found and improvised tools—allows Thrams to invite the unpredictable and natural forces of the forest into her working process. In her commitment to working outdoors, Thrams is also participating in long history of plein aire painting pioneered in the nineteenth century by the Impressionists. Finding a way to directly translate the natural world in art has been a preoccupation for artists for centuries.

http://www.andiethrams.com/