Deirdre Bean

Deirdre is a recognized botanical artist who exhibits locally and internationally. She paints in watercolour on paper and vellum.  Deirdre’s watercolour paintings are painstakingly executed over many hours and are always botanically correct.

Influenced by traditional painting methods, Deirdre brings her fine illustrative style into a fresh contemporary practice inspired by the natural world. Deirdre paints her subjects closely, revealing intricate detail and perfect forms that the eye sometimes misses.  She sources her subjects from fieldtrips and methodically composes her paintings in the studio.

Environmental threats to Australia’s flora has inspired Deirdre to paint species of environmental importance and vulnerability. Deirdre is a PhD candidate in Natural History Illustration at the University of Newcastle. Her research title is ‘Australia’s mangroves: a plant community facing an uncertain future’. She is currently working on the mangrove species of Australia, most of which grow in and around the Daintree River in Far North Queensland.  The mangroves are the subject of her post graduate studies in Natural History Illustration.

Deirdre was the inaugural winner of the 2015 Executive Director's Prize at Botanica and has been a finalist in the Waterhouse Prize for Natural History in 2012 and received highly commended in 2011.