Article

By Bridget A. Lyons

June 4, 2025—If you’re a Hilltromper who has been to some state and national parks in the course of your wanderings, then you’ve probably seen countless “interpretive panels”—those full-color, weather-resistant, illustrated informational plaques that tell you a bit about the natural or human history of the area in which you’re recreating. As you’ve studied their contents, have you ever wondered who makes the art that adorns them?

The answer: scientific illustrators. These talented folks create extremely accurate visual representations of their subjects to both communicate with the public and assist scientists in their work.

Before even lifting a pencil, brush, or computer mouse, they must first do extensive research and observation, then choose an appropriate medium and compositional strategy for their expression. “The Art of Nature,” the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History’s current exhibit, is a testament to the wide ranges of artistic decisions available to scientific illustrators—and an opportunity to check out the amazing results their efforts yield.

In this year’s exhibit—the museum’s 37th annual iteration—there are traditional watercolor, colored pencil, and ink renditions of lichens, pelicans, otters, flowers, and rockfish, among other creatures. But there are also linoleum block prints of beavers, black salamanders, and birds; mandala-type representations of multiple animals in assemblage; digital renderings of sea stars, jellyfish, and sea lions; a 3D-printed California newt; and even a cribbage board with a very realistic looking Monterey Ensatina (a local salamander species) winding itself around the peg holes.

“I love that this exhibit brings these two aspects of scientific illustration—the traditional and the more artistic—together,” Beck Hong, the museum’s Communications Director told me. As they walked me around the exhibit, they pointed out how the staff deliberately juxtaposed pieces to highlight artists’ differing decisions and encourage the viewer to consider their effects.

“The main thing we want is for people to see scientific illustration as an art form,” Hong said.

There’s no doubt the museum is succeeding at that. Nearly every piece in the exhibit is breathtaking in some way—whether it’s the single great horned owl feather’s attention to color variation, the mountain lion’s luminous eyes, or the lichen’s magnified details—reminding the viewer just how much intricacy and beauty can be witnessed by the careful observer.

To encourage this kind of careful observation in all of us, the museum has incorporated a couple of interactive displays in the exhibit. They’re also offering a series of hands-on workshops that allow members of the community to try out some scientific illustration techniques (for a schedule of those, follow this link to the museum’s events page).

Interpretive Expression

As someone who has probably read more than a thousand interpretive panels in her life, I particularly appreciated the four included in the exhibit. They are accompanied by the original artwork their panel designers drew from, and, in one case, the actual Native American artifacts from the museum’s collections that were used by the illustrator.

Despite my experience with informational kiosks, it had never really occurred to me that each image on them has been pulled from a more complete piece that, in many cases, is much bigger and more complex that the panel art reveals. Showcased at the entrance to the exhibit is a gorgeous Maria Amorette Klos’ snowy plover panel from the Marina Dunes. Next to it are two of the artist’s original gouache renderings—one of a father and chick and another of a nest of eggs. The former subject appears on the panel just as it is in the painting, but the latter has been excerpted to allow the viewer to focus entirely on the eggs.

Seeing the complete composition that showed the whole nest provided a different experience for me, one that changed my direction of focus. As I studied both this panel and the ones dedicated to Ohlone tiger beetles, sea lemons, and natural history journals, I realized just how much art goes into these things.

For this reason, interpretive panel jobs are many scientific illustrators’ bread and butter. They are a big part of scientific illustration training programs, such as the well-known one at nearby Cal State Monterey Bay (CSUMB). A number of the 37 artists represented in this exhibit are current or former students of this program; however, the show is open to all scientific illustrators and artists in Northern California.

Most of the featured artists sell their artwork in some form or another, and a binder listing the costs of the pieces in the exhibit and contact information for the artists is available at the museum’s front desk. In addition, many of the featured artists have prints, cards, and stickers for sale in the gift shop, so there are ample opportunities to take home a piece of exquisitely rendered nature at just about any price point.

“I think the exhibit enables people to see the natural world from a different perspective,” Hong said as we were wrapping up. I nodded my assent. I would argue that this different perspective is exactly what is needed to ensure that our wild creatures and landscapes thrive in this changing world. And I’d say that scientific illustrators play a powerful role in catalyzing this shift. Check out the exhibit—it’s up until June 8—and see what you think!

The Santa Cruz Natural History Museum’s website is filled with additional information about the exhibit and its associated event offerings, as well as museum hours and fees.

Bridget A. Lyons is a writer, editor and explorer living in Santa Cruz. Her book, 'Entwined: Dispatches from the Intersection of Species,' will be available in local bookshops in July.