Featured Artist: Heeyoung Kim

​At Brushwood Center, we are responding to the COVID-19 crisis by doing what we strive to do year round: build a community around nature and the arts. This crisis is heavily affecting arts organizations and artists, as major art festivals, fairs, performances, and exhibitions that provide critical support and income are canceled or postponed. To help lift up the arts community during this difficult time, we will be highlighting a different nature-inspired artist each week and sharing their story with you. We encourage you to reflect on the impact of art in your life, and look for ways to support artists in our community.
For our first spotlight, we are featuring our internationally-renowned artist in residence, Heeyoung Kim. Heeyoung has been part of the Brushwood family since 2011. She began with her first solo show, and soon after started teaching her weekly classes at Brushwood Center.

In the spirit of natural history artists of the past, award winning contemporary botanical artist Heeyoung Kim documents and depicts native plants of prairies and woods in Midwestern USA. Giving priority to rare and endangered species, she also paints common ones when they have high ecological value. Rare orchid species are also her favorite painting subjects. Believing that humans can only survive when plants and pollinators thrive, Kim actively engages with locals to draw public attention to plant conservation through her exhibitions, talks at garden clubs, or nature and art related activities with students. Founder of Heeyoung Kim Botanical Art Academy, Kim is an internationally renowned botanical artist and instructor. She teaches the ancient art form of scientific plant illustration at Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods.

"Everything in nature leaves me in awe, large or small, floral or faunal, living or non-living..... I am always awakened and amazed by the beauty and perfect design of every part of Mother Nature, and I strive for expressing my enlightened self in art."

​Free Tutorial for Brushwood Followers:

Heeyoung has generously provided two free monarch butterfly coloring pages for Brushwood members to print out at home!  Simply follow the link to her online store and enter the code "BRUSHWOOD" at checkout to download.  You can also follow along with her step-by-step coloring tutorial on YouTube! ​

Download Coloring Pages

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​Follow Heeyoung Online

You can learn more about Heeyoung's classes, view her portfolio, and purchase her work by visiting her website.  You can also keep up with her by following her on Facebook or Instagram.

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​Heeyoung's Most Recent Exhibitions

5th Annual: Enriching Life - Botanical Art Exhibition, Heeyoung Kim & Brushwood Botanical Artists. November 24, 2019 - January 12, 2020 at Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods, Riverwoods, IL.
Heeyoung Kim: New Works - Orchid Watercolor Paintings. July 25- September 7, 2019, Joel Oppenheimer Gallery, Chicago, IL.
Botanical Art Worldwide, America’s Flora: Linking People with Plants through Botanical Art. 2018 - 2019, 4 venues in the United States.
Transylvania Florilegium, The Prince of Wales’s Botanical Art Documentation of Transylvania, Romania: May 23 - July 31, 2018, Embassy of Romania, London. Kim’s three watercolor paintings are included in the royal collection.