As a natural history illustrator and botanical artist, Gillian Harris works at the intersection of art and science: she enjoys delving into field guides and other resources to research her detailed illustrations, while appreciating how drawing or painting a subject deepens her understanding of it.

Based in Bloomington and Brown County, Indiana, Gillian earned a B.A. in English at Indiana University (1984) and attended graduate school at Harvard University. As a nondegree student she later studied botany at Harvard, University of Michigan, and IU. At Michigan she also studied natural science illustration, and her first project was with Michigan Science Art, a consortium that contributed work to a 12-volume animal life encyclopedia. Gillian has since illustrated field guides and gardening books, one of which, Shrubs Large and Small, she co-wrote with Moya Andrews. Her work has appeared in the journals Smithsonian in Your Classroom and The Botanical Artist.

Gillian has always sought to mesh her artwork with her interests in natural history and conservation. She was artist-in-residence at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore (now National Park), and at T.C. Steele State Historic Site in Brown County, home to Selma Steele Nature Preserve. She was selected as the Great Smoky Mountains Wildflower Pilgrimage’s “Artist of the Year” in 2004 for her renderings of Appalachian flora. Her artwork has appeared at the Detroit Zoo and on signage for the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, and in “Focus on Nature,” the annual natural history illustration exhibition sponsored by the New York State Museum. Her illustrations have been used by wildlife and conservation organizations and botanical gardens. Gillian has exhibited in several juried international shows sponsored by the American Society of Botanical Artists, which seeks to bring together science and art, including Botanical Art Worldwide: America’s Flora; and Losing Paradise?: Endangered Plants Here and around the World. These and other ASBA exhibitions in which Gillian participated traveled to numerous venues, such as the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History;  the United States, New York, Missouri and Chicago Botanic Gardens; the University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley; and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, England.

An Indiana Advanced Master Naturalist, Gillian has taught wildflower classes for the Master Naturalist certification program and leads wildflower walks for local organizations, including the annual Brown County Wildflower Foray and the South-central Chapter of the Indiana Native Plant Society. She also edits IU Press’s Indiana Natural Science Series, and has had a column, “The Wild Garden,” focusing on sustainability and landscaping with plants indigenous to Indiana, in the Bloomington Herald-Times.

Gillian’s travels are usually centered around hiking and photographing wildflowers, ferns, insects, and birds. Two of her favorite haunts are the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and the White Mountains of New Hampshire. But most of her inspiration comes from her own backyard, and the flora and fauna she encounters while walking or paddling through southern Indiana.