As part of my interest in all things flowers, I decided to take a class offered at Emily Carr’s Continung Studies program. My first class was Saturday January 22nd, I was very excited to wake up early on a Saturday morning and head down to Granville Island for school! The fresh sea breeze got me ready for a morning of drawing flowers. In class we introduced ourselves and began learning a brief history of botanical illustration. In the beginning, botanical illustration was not about art at all, it was used to enhance scientific study of the flower in the time before cameras. Flowers were dissected and drawn with great realism. Often this was the only reference scientists had to study flowers that had been discovered in other parts of the globe. Today botanical illustration is still popular, but is more about discovering the hidden beauty within flowers. It gives us time to slow down and draw the roses! -Janee