Five Artists on How Nature Finds Its Way into Their Art

At Arts to Hearts Project, we have always believed that some themes do not need explaining. Nature is one of them. Long before we have words for anything, we are surrounded by it. The seasons changing, water moving, sunlight reaching the same wall at the same time every morning.

It teaches us about beginnings and endings, about what is fragile and what is strong, about how to be still. And somewhere along the way it stops being only the world outside us and becomes part of who we are.

That is why we chose it for 101 Art Book: Nature Edition. When we began shaping this edition, we kept coming back to how universal and how personal nature is at the same time. Artists across cultures and generations have turned to it as a subject, a symbol, a refuge, and sometimes a warning.

And at a time when our connection to the natural world feels more important than ever, we wanted to make space for artists to pause, look closely, and show us what they see.

The result is a hardcover collection in our signature zigzag design, with 101 artists from around the world, each given a page of their own. From intricate drawings to vivid paintings, every artist comes to nature in a different way. Some are drawn to its detail, some to its power, and some use it to tell stories that are really about themselves.

So we asked the featured artists about that. Was there a particular place, walk, or moment in nature that became part of their process? A trail they keep going back to, a stretch of coastline, one afternoon outdoors that changed the way they see. What they shared was so personal and so specific that it deserved far more than a line in a book. We are sharing some of their answers here.

Here is what they told us.

An artist’s process does not always begin with a brush. Sometimes it begins with a run into the woods.

Most of us know the feeling of needing to get out of the house. After an argument, after a bad day, when everything inside feels too loud. Some people drive, some walk, some just stand outside for a few minutes. Without really planning it, we end up with a place that makes us feel okay again. Artists are no different. They just tend to carry those places into their work, often years before they realise it.

Almut Knebel @almut_knebel_art remembers hers clearly:

“When I was a teenager, after an argument, I ran out of the house into the woods. A thunderstorm broke out, but I ran around amid the lightning, thunder, and trees. When I walked back home, I was soaking wet, but calm and happy. The woods and water still calm me today.”

Almut Knebel

A thunderstorm breaks out, and instead of heading back inside, Almut keeps running. By the time she walks home she is soaking wet, and somehow calm and happy. She did not go looking for calm. She just ran, and the woods did the rest. What stays with us is the last line. Years later, the woods and water still do exactly the same thing for her. Some places never stop working on us, and Almut found hers as a teenager.

Some of the best ideas for art arrive when the artist is not trying to have one.

Most artists will tell you the same thing. The idea you sit down and try to force rarely works. The good ones show up when you are doing something else. Washing dishes, waiting for a bus, walking with nowhere to be. The mind gets quiet enough for something to come through, and by the time you notice it, it is already there, asking to be made.

Amanda Margaretha @amanda_margaretha shares where the idea began:

“I find healing and restoration when I go on these walks. It sparked my desire to create a work about journey of healing. For the journey I picked cinnamon. For healing I picked red peppercorns and chamomile representing healing remedies. I used Bay leaves representing victory.”

Amanda Margaretha

Amanda goes on these walks to heal and restore herself, and somewhere along the way they gave her an idea too. She did not pick her materials for how they look. Cinnamon stands for the journey. Red peppercorns and chamomile stand for the remedies that help us heal. Bay leaves stand for victory. Every material in the piece has a reason to be there, and together they tell the story of someone who found healing outside first and then found a way to show it.

Sometimes the best subject is the one that has been growing in your
neighbourhood all along.

We tend to think inspiration lives somewhere else. In another country, on a long trip, in a place that takes planning to reach. But a lot of the time it is sitting on a corner you walk past every week. A garden someone planted, a plant that has been there longer than you noticed. Most of us keep walking. Artists are the ones who stop.

Anitha Iyer @anitha_iyer_art shares where this one started:

“In San Francisco, I often see community gardens with succulents and agaves. They add so much beauty to the neighborhood — it’s hard not to pause and enjoy these beauties. For Tequila Origin story, I combined this subject with a vibrant color palette inspired by my trip to Mexico City.”

Anitha Iyer

Anitha did not have to go far to find her subject. It was already in the community gardens around her in San Francisco, where the succulents and agaves were quietly adding beauty to the neighborhood. She paused for them. Then she mixed them with the colours she brought back from Mexico City, and that became Tequila Origin Story. A plant from her own street and a palette from a trip, together in one piece. It makes you want to look a little closer at your own neighborhood.

Art made from a lifelong love does not feel like effort. It feels like the next natural step.

Ask most artists about nature and they will tell you about one particular day. A trail, a storm, a morning that changed something. But not everyone has a day like that. Some people just grow up loving the natural world a little more each year, until it is part of everything they make. No turning point, no big moment. Only a love that kept building quietly in the background.

Anna Kovacs @fineartbyannak describes a love that has always been there:

“There hasn’t been one particular moment as it’s been an accumulation of a life-long love. It has been the most natural, organic process for me to celebrate a great love through my artwork.”

Anna Kovacs

Anna did not have a story about one afternoon or one walk, and she did not try to make one up. What she gave us was the honest version. A love that has been with her for her whole life, and a process that never felt like work because it grew straight out of that love. When you have loved something for that long, you do not need a plan or a reason to make art about it. For Anna, it is simply what comes next.

Rain on the leaves, herbs in the air, and a mind with nothing else to do but imagine.

Most of us only think about creativity when we sit down to make something. But a lot of the time the ideas arrive in the moments before that, when nothing is being asked of us. We are not scrolling or planning or rushing to the next thing. We are just there, noticing. That kind of quiet is harder to find than it used to be.

Arkady Thompson @natural_inclinations finds it on the front porch:

“I love the rain while sitting on my front porch. I enjoy the sound of rain on the plants and the wonderful smells that come from my herbs. I find all of my senses consumed by the simple gift of those moments. It gives my mind room to create.”

Arkady Thompson

Room to create. There is no studio in this answer, no materials, no technique. Just a porch, the rain, and some herbs. Every sense gets filled by the moment, and that is exactly what leaves the mind free to wander. Arkady calls it a simple gift, and it sounds like one. It is also a good reminder that the creative part of the day does not always happen at the easel. Sometimes it happens in a chair, listening to the rain.

Reading through these answers, we kept noticing how small the moments were. A run into the woods in the middle of a thunderstorm. A walk taken to heal. A community garden on a neighbourhood street. A front porch in the rain. And one artist who could not point to a single moment at all, only a lifetime of loving the natural world. None of it needed a faraway place. Nature found its way into the work through ordinary days, and it stayed.

That is what we hoped to capture in 101 Art Book: Nature Edition. It is a hardcover collection in our signature zigzag design, with 101 artists from around the world, each given a page of their own. Every artist looks at the natural world a little differently, and together they remind us to slow down and notice what is already around us. If these stories made you want to step outside, the book is at the link below.

And if you are an artist who has been waiting for the right moment to put your work in front of the world, this is it, and it is almost gone. The deadline for the Artist of the Year Award 2026 is very close. This is a chance to have your work and your practice recognised, and it will not stay open while you think it over. If you have been meaning to apply, today is the day.