56th Anniversary Juried Member's Exhibit - 2024

I was born in Venezuela. Since I was a child, I was interested in drawing and artistic painting. I studied biology at the Universidad Central de Venezuela (in Caracas) where I was first introduced to naturalistic illustration through courses in Biological Drawing. Then I obtained a PhD in Ecophysiology at the Louis Pasteur University in Strasbourg, France where simultaneously I took drawing and painting courses at “ l'Ecole des Arts Décoratifs” in Strasbourg. I have illustrated several books on the fauna of Venezuela, among them, the Red Book of the fauna of Venezuela, Ornamental fishes of Venezuela, Cetaceans of Venezuela, Birds of Venezuela, as well as posters and book covers. Three of my drawings were included as illustrations in an edition of currency bills issued in 19xx by the Central Bank of Venezuela. I have participated in several group and solo exhibitions and in 2015 I received the mention of the public award in the international scientific illustration contest "Illustraciencia 2015".
As a scientist, I worked for more than 20 years at the Ecology Center of the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research. Since 2020 I live and work in France dedicating my free time to illustrate mainly the fauna of Venezuela and Europe.
In my illustration work I seek to show the variety of shapes and colors exhibited by some hyper-diverse animal groups, representative forms of some vertebrate and invertebrate orders. For my illustrations I use mainly watercolor, but also acrylic paint, graphite pencil and charcoal pencil, often combining several of these materials.