As a kid I spent my time in the forest, running (very literally) barefoot through streams and picking berries off bushes to eat (no I did not get poisoned)! I’d run home and tell my parents all about the critters I’d seen. They were very patient listeners to their little kid who wouldn’t stop making up stories about banana slugs. That fascination with the natural world—the textures, the colors, the connections—is the soil nourishing all of my work.

You’ll find me in the Finger Lakes of New York illustrating warm, tactile, colorful flora, fauna, and fungi in gouache. I work in my basement studio next to my woodstove, usually with two very sleepy cats to keep me company. Everything I paint is intensely studied and researched down to the last tiny hidden detail! When I'm not painting, I'm wandering in the woods closely inspecting mushroom caps and acorns and figuring out the names of all the slugs I see.

Some Facts

Pronouns: he / they

Favorite colors: deep forest green, warm blue, marigold

Favorite things to think about: mycelial networks, the Cambrian explosion, binary stars, lichens

Want to work together?

Email me at hello@julianplum.com!