Natural History Illustrations by Jessie Burch

I am such a fan of Jessie Burch’s work. It is breathtaking and the natural history illustrations are captivating. Her color palettes are so rich and comforting. It was great to get a bit more insight about Jessie. Enjoy!

Jessie Burch lives in Oregon and divides her time between the coast and the Willamette Valley. “I love the balance these two environments bring to my creativity.” As an admirer of Jessie’s work, it’s wonderful to see the influence both of these environments has on her work and creativity.

Like so many designers in our industry, Jessie came to the world of textile design and surface pattern design from other areas of expertise. Jessie’s background is in art history and interior design. “I love the merger of these two skills, as they draw constant inspiration to help guide me.”

What influences have impacted your pattern designs?

Let’s start with a quote by Louise Bourgeois, which sums it up perfectly: “Art is a guarantee of sanity.” This guides me daily in most of my work, which is digital work that uses mixed media.

These images are inspired by nature, natural history illustrations, and botanical illustration, as well as my love of antique and vintage objects.

Learn more about natural history illustrations

For those of you who are unfamiliar with natural history illustrations, the Smithsonian Institution now has 150,000 free illustrations of the natural world which are now available for viewing for inspiration. “The artworks, collected by the open-access Biodiversity Heritage Library, range from animal sketches to historical diagrams and botanical studies.”

Thank you for sharing your natural history illustrations with us, Jessie! View more of Jessie Burch’s excellent work on Instagram.

At Pattern Observer we strive to help you grow your textile design business through our informative articles, interviews, tutorials, workshops and our private design community, The Textile Design Lab.

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