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Daria.botanicals

@daria.botanicals

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Award-winning botanical artist
🏆 WOC 2026 Certificate of Merit
Guiding the brush like a violin bow
Live session October 17 at 10 am Berlin time

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Some of you asked how to learn from me beyond the live painting sessions. I built a class for that. A small class, six Sundays starting June 21. Line, tone, watercolour technique, mixing, and a full painting in two parts, all worked through the same mangosteen. Then two weeks of independent project of your own, and a final live critique on 9 August.

Before I decide how to paint, I make sure I know what I am painting.

Most of the class is about the seeing and the thinking before any mixing or painting. The eye trains the hand, and the hand trains the eye, in every exercise we do.

Twelve places per class. Applications open until 12 June. I‘ll read every one myself. Link in Bio.

The four studies in the slide 4 are by @elisa_cavaliere_illustrazioni from the spring Mentoring round.

#botanicalwatercolour #botanicalwatercolor #watercolorstudy #botanicaljournal #botanicalartclass by @daria.botanicals

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5 months ago

My Signature Palette – 18 Pigments for Botanical Watercolour

One question I’m asked constantly: „Which colours do you use?“

After years of experimentation, I’ve refined my palette to 18 carefully selected pigments – transparent, lightfast, and built my colour system. These are the exact colors I use for all my botanical work, including my award-winning Zygopetalum orchid.

I’ve created a free guide for you. Sign up for my Studio Letter and receive the Guide as a downloadable PDF.

Link in bio. #dariaspigmentjournal #watercolourpalette #watercolorpigments #watercolorforbeginners #botanicalwatercolor by @daria.botanicals

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6 months ago

Sometimes it takes a moment to grasp what just happened.
My Zygopetalum hybrid – four months of work, countless glazes, months of observing the living plant – was not only selected for the exhibition at the World Orchid Conference in Dresden. It was awarded the Certificate of Merit, 3rd place for Plant Identification.
My very first offline exhibition. My first international award.
The jury consisted of orchid specialists from the German Orchid Society and the World Orchid Conference – people who know Zygopetalum inside and out. That they recognized the botanical accuracy of my work means everything to me.
I stood on the same stage as established artists whose work I have admired for years. It feels surreal – and at the same time like confirmation that all the hours at the painting table, all the doubts, all the patience were worth it.
Thank you to everyone who has accompanied and encouraged me on this journey. This is just the beginning.
Zygopetalum Hybrid • Watercolor on Hahnemühle Leonardo 600 gr, 30×40, 2025. Huge thanks to @vbk_deutschland @woc_2026 @deutsche_orchideengesellschaft for making this happen.

#botanicalwatercolor #zygopetalum #botanischekunst #botanicalartist #watercolorpainting by @daria.botanicals

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7 months ago

In my childhood I was building the tiniest flower models out of modelling clay - so small people could see them only through a magnifying glass. Still, they all had my fingerprints on them. Now, when applying colour to depict the essence of a petal, I am thinking of the invisible fingerprints.

Pigments from my signature palette.

#botanicalwatercolor #botanicalart #watercolorpractice #healingthroughart #plantdissection by @daria.botanicals

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9 days ago

Tomorrow: the final episode of the Green series at my live painting session! Pull out your watercolours, we will paint together. Swipe to see our green mixes we made together a couple of weeks ago - recordings available for free on my website. Feel free to use the leaf from the third photo as reference anytime. See you there!

#botanicalwatercolor #botanicalart #mixinggreens #paintwithme #watercolorforbeginners by @daria.botanicals

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16 days ago

Small beginnings, one brushstroke at a time.

#botanicalartist #dahlia #botanicalwatercolor #botanischekunst #aquarellebotanique by @daria.botanicals

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23 days ago

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a month ago

AD | Werbung. Rosa sent me a set of their single pigment watercolours to test, free of charge, and instead of painting anything with them I spent the first evening getting to know one single colour. That is usually how it goes here. A new paint tells you almost nothing while it sits in the pan. You find out what it actually is when you push it into a mixture and it starts behaving differently than you expected.

For anyone who wants the conditions: one pan or tube each of Daniel Smith, Sennelier and @rosa.ukraine , the same CP cotton paper, the same yellow and the same umber, all painted in one sitting. One sample of each, so this is my experience with my three and not a verdict on the brands. If you have an indanthrone in your palette, mix it with a yellow some time and see where it lands. That one step tells you more about your blue than any swatch card. Which one do you use? I am curious whether yours leans the same way.

Tomorrow I will work on silvery greens for an echeveria and a tillandsia in my bi-weekly live painting session using this new colour, link in Bio.

#primarypalette #botanicalwatercolour #danielsmithwatercolors #rosawatercolor #watercolorswatches by @daria.botanicals

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a month ago

Going in-depth with my limited palette once again with this Rosa Rugosa rose hip. Just two reds, and much water control. The most important instrument for it is right under my hand. Working slowly and steadily. #botanicalwatercolour #botanicalart #rosarugosa #watercolortechnique #limitedpalette by @daria.botanicals

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a month ago

Sap green out of the tube is flat to my eyes. Here it is, adjusted with primaries: I start from the darkest dark to set the whole range, then work with a half-dry brush to keep the skin’s texture. Painted live in my free session, come to the next one. Link in bio. 🌿 by @daria.botanicals

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3 months ago

Ugly first layer? To me, the question is only if it will serve my painting process or not, and not its visual appeal. Here I use PV19 quin. rose and PY150 as my colour temperature map.

Using transparent pigments from my signature palette I use them to my advantage when working on the colour slowly and building depth layer by layer. Here you can see me at the beginning of the process. The second layer with PR254 is transparent as well and let the underlying pigments shine through while simultaneously appearing more or less cool.

How is your relationship with the first layer? 💛

#botanicalwatercolor #watercolorprocess #learningwatercolor #watercolorbeginner #botanicalartwork by @daria.botanicals

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2 months ago

My leaves used to come out flat, and I blamed everything but the paint. 🌿 Turns out it was the premixed green in the tube. The day I gave those away, my greens finally came alive.

Everything I worked out after that is in these slides. Save them for your next leaf.
I mix all of it live, out loud, while I paint, and it became a little guide: How I Mix My Greens. It’s free in the studio library when you join. Link in bio. Next free live session is this Saturday, come paint along. 🎨

#botanicalwatercolor #botanicalpalette #mixinggreens #watercolourtutorial #paintingplants by @daria.botanicals

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3 months ago