Art in the Service of Science
“Art in the Service of Science”, a display of scientific art, continues through June 4, 2011, in the Sterling Morton Library of the Morton Arboretum, 4100 Illinois Route 53, Lisle, Illinois. The exhibit, by the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators (GNSI) demonstrates the confluence of art and science.
Scientific illustrators are artists in the service of science. They use scientifically informed observation, combined with technical skills to accurately portray a subject. Accuracy and communication are essential. The skilled scientific illustrator can clarify and emphasize important details, and reconstruct broken specimens on paper.
The paintings and drawings on display are created through a variety of mediums from the centuries old techniques used to illuminate manuscripts to digital paintings created entirely on the computer. Topics range from fossil reconstruction to children’s book illustrations.
The GNSI is a nonprofit organization, founded at the Smithsonian Institution in 1968, of persons employed or genuinely interested in the field of natural science illustration.
(Image of Lenten Rose by Chris A. Graebner, ©2008, courtesy of the GNSI)