Member Event, Painting Bees: Pollinator Art from Research to Exhibit with Erin E. Hunter

Erin Hunter is a talented local science illustrator and fine artist with a graphic design background—and each of those roles influences how she approaches her pollinator-themed paintings. In this presentation, Erin will provide a behind-the-scenes look at her most ambitious piece yet, a large painting of California native bees and wildflowers that anchored a 2022 solo show at the San Francisco Botanical Garden. In addition to discussing what inspired the project, she’ll discuss the process of sketching, designing a layout, painting, and presenting the piece in multiple formats to various audiences.

Erin E. Hunter is a painter and science illustrator based in the Monterey Bay area. A graduate of the science illustration program at UC Santa Cruz (now at CSUMB), Erin splits her time between fine art painting and technical illustrations for an academic journal, Annual Reviews. Apart from a few years in New York and an internship in Washington, D.C., she’s always been based in California—from as far north as Chico to as far south as Escondido. Not surprisingly, the Golden State landscapes that Erin calls home now influence her work as an artist: the arid foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains; the sunny suburbs of the East Bay; the pine forests and oak woodlands of Monterey County. As a kid, Erin carried around a Reader’s Digest Guide to North American Wildlife. She tried to identify the plants and animals she saw, while also drawing all the time, everywhere, on everything. As an adult, she combined these two urges into a career as a science illustrator. Erin’s passion for nature has distilled into a deep interest in plant-pollinator interactions, and her artwork reflects this. She paints portraits of flowering plants and their floral visitors, primarily pollinating insects like bees and butterflies.