Cincinnati based artist, Danya Shah, has been honoring her skills in oil painting & watercolors for the past several years. Danya graduated Notre Dame of Maryland University with a B.A in Biology and a minor in Studio Art. It was there that she blended her interest for Biology and artistry, bringing about the perfect marriage of her passions.

A majority of her work depicts her love for nature and biology through botanical illustrations. Her love of flora and fauna grew from her earliest memories gardening with her father. This love and her curious need to observe detail led her to botanical artistry. She approaches each composition with the intention of revealing something unseen or unnoticed about the flower, viewing them as floral ‘portraits’. She is also interested in the fibonacci sequence and how it forms in nature.

Her work is heavily influenced by impressionism, the Dutch Masters, and Sufi poetry. The flowers she paints are conceptual, illusory, abstract, symbolic, representational, and self-referential. They’re all that and more, but rarely ever literal. Using a technical lens, Danya showcases her skill in handling light, nature, and depth through floral still life.

While Danya no longer takes commissions, she still enjoys showcasing and practicing her artistry. She’s also grown to love gardening her own plants, sculpting ceramics, as well as creating intricate floral arrangements in her free time.