Press

ALBANY, NY -- There's an art to science and a science to art, and every once in a while the two cross.

Natural history artists from around the state, the country and the world who work with scientists depicting plants, animals, bugs and other subjects will display their art at the New York State Museum this fall. The works will be featured in Focus on Nature V: Natural History Illustration from Oct. 15 to Dec. 15 in the West Gallery.

Both scientists and illustrators will come together from Oct. 14 to Oct. 17 for the New York Natural History Conference V: A Forum for Current Research for workshops on topics as varied as freshwater mussels, butterflies, color theory and identifying fish.

Patricia Kernan, the New York State Museum's staff illustrator, has documented thousands of plants and animals while working with scientists on research projects. "For centuries illustrators and scientists have collaborated beginning with the earliest medicinal herbals," said Kernan, who is curator of the exhibit. All the major natural history museums still use illustrators, relying on pen, ink, watercolors and other mediums to elucidate the results of research and collections.

Kernan, who majored in Latin American studies at the University of Wisconsin, first came in contact with scientific illustration while visiting a nature center in Ecuador. She saw sketches of orchids by a researcher and thought she could do better. While visiting friends in Ecuador who were fanatical about orchids, she set up a studio and began drawing the specimens. That led to a degree in scientific illustration from the Rhode Island of Design and four months in Costa Rica drawing unique rain forest plants being collected for the Missouri Botanical Garden. She also spent a month in Panama assisting collectors and recording plants for the Fairchild Tropical Garden. In 1988, she began working at the State Museum.

Kernan's methods sometimes involve peering into a microscope at a specimen for hours just to get the intricate detail perfect. Exactness and clarity of line is extremely important in this art since it documents valuable research that scientists may rely upon for years. Kernan's drawings of precisely beautiful illustrations of orchids, mosses and animals have graced the pages of many studies and publications produced by the State Museum. Working within the confines of exact measurements and scientific accuracy, Kernan said she strives to test her creativity by making the drawings as aesthetically pleasing as possible.

"It opens up a whole world of observation, looking at that level of detail," Kernan said.

For more information or for exhibit slides, please call 518/474-0079.