Deborah Montgomerie

Biography

Deborah was born in the UK but currently lives in a little seaside town on Whidbey Island, an artist’s and writer’s haven in the far NW corner of Washington State, USA. She has been involved in the arts one way or another for most of her life, originally training as a textile designer. For many years Deborah also worked as a technical illustrator and a graphic designer for aerospace companies.

Several years ago, recovering from an illness, she discovered the joy of painting plant life & became interested in portraying the plant alone without any other distractions. In 2012 at the age of 57 she decided it was now or never and enrolled with the SBA distance learning course to understand more of the techniques of botanical painting.

She usually works in 3 main media: graphite, pen & ink, watercolor. She has a passion for reaching out to find the world’s most interesting paints and papers that are suitable for botanicals. She paints in many layers using fine brushes to gradually capture the color of the subject.

Her choice of subjects are many: typically flowers, fruit and vegetables but she really enjoys depicting subjects that have character such as seeds, pods, roots etc. She likes to dissect & use her digital microscope to study the subject to understand its ‘inner structures’.

These days Deborah is challenging herself to do larger works. There has recently been an interest in her large sketchbook pages, some of which have been framed and sold. She also has a line of greeting cards and bags that sell in a museum store and local garden center gift stores. She also exhibits regularly in a prestigious  local gallery.

Deborah is also a member of the American Society of Botanical Artists (ASBA) & the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators.

Becoming a Fellow of the SBA was a wonderful dream that has come true.