◆ Brianna Drew is part of 45th annual Juried UW Student Exhibition.

Thirty-two University of Wyoming students recently received awards for their works of art that are part of the UW Art Museum’s 45th annual Juried UW Student Exhibition.

For the 45th annual Juried UW Student Exhibition, 60 students submitted 164 works of art for review. From those, 50 artworks by 42 students were selected.

Among the award recipents was Brianna Drew of Star Valley.

“I’m currently earning my Bachelor’s of Fine Arts at the University of Wyoming and earning my certification in Botanical Illustration at the School of Botanical Art and Illustration at the Gardens at the Denver Botanic Gardens,” said Drew. “I love plants and enjoy illustrating them. A lot of my current illustrations deal with themes of growth and adaptation which I relate to.”

“I come from a rather rough childhood which changed when my grandparents (David Hunt and Linda McMullin) became my legal guardians in 2009 when I was 10 years old,” she continued. “Their love and support helped me push myself to achieving my goals.”

For Drew, art has been a lifelong love. However, it was not until she entered college that Drew began to explore artistic possibilities.

“I always loved drawing and coloring,” she said. “When I went to Northwest College, I took a Drawing 1 class. One of my most influential professors, John Giarrizzo, showed me the world of drawing and from there I was hooked.”

“I transferred to the University of Wyoming [where] I continued studying art, but I wasn’t sure what I really wanted to do,” Drew continued. “One day in Drawing 2, I did a master study of Margaret Mee’s (a British botanical iIllustrator) work of Nymphaea rudgeanna 1978. That’s when I fell in love with botanical illustration.”

“I use watercolor, gouache (more opaque watercolors), graphite, and color pencils to do my illustrations,” she explained.

Plants are not the easiest subject matter. Creating botanical prints requires a melding of science and art.
“When I start an illustration, I first like to conduct research on my subject,” she said. “I collect references ranging from photos to having an actual live plant. I do little studies to figure out the composition I want to create. From there, I do a detail drawing then add color using either watercolors or colored pencils. Usually I like using colored pencils for details for my final step of the illustration. All of this process can take four to 25 hours to complete a successful completed illustration.”

Now, people are starting to take notice of Drew’s creations.

“Recently I had two artworks called Ginkgo bilbao (a botanical illustration) and Forms (ceramics piece) in the 45th Student Art Juried Show at the University of Wyoming and won the David Reif Sculpture Award, the UW Libraries Purchase Award for Forms and the Ann Simpson Family Award for the Ginkgo bilbao,” she said. “Earning these awards and having my artwork on display as been a humbling and rewarding experience. I’m very thankful for this opportunity and hope to participate in many more.”

“I love the structure and freedom I get when creating art,” Drew added. “Botanical illustration has rules the artist must follow to be scientifically accurate. But [artists have] the artistic freedom of how to portray the the subject [they are] illustrating. This balance of a artistic creativity and structure is just right for me!”

Drew has a future in mind where she can be artistic.

“For now I plan to graduate from the University of Wyoming and complete my certification program at the School of Botanical Art and Illustration at the Gardens,” she said. “From there I want to open up my own small business selling prints of my illustrations and stationary. In the long term, I’d love to open up a community art building so rural artists can come together and have a place to create, share, and even teach their craft to others.”

To view Brianna Drew’s website, visit lilbeastea.wixsite.com/website.