Featured Artist Tim Phelps

Using symbolic patterns and vibrant color, artist Tim Phelp’s engaging nature mandalas express his fascination and love for the earth’s flora and fauna. Visit his Facebook page to learn more.

 

 

I welcome you to take an exciting eco-trip “around” my world of nature mandalas. My nature mandalas cast an artistic eye on the real and imagined architecture of plants and animals. Vibrant illustrations and engaging narrative invite my viewers to wander in and wonder at nature’s seemingly endless variety of forms, from the simple to the complex.

 

 

Using the graphic and symbolic patterns of mandalas, I combine color, texture, and symmetry to tell the story of organisms and their roles in healthy ecosystems. My plants and animals are presented in visual form, outlining morphology and habitat with descriptions of their importance to medicine and science and conservation issues.

 

 

The selection and illustrating of my flora and fauna are of my choosing, based upon my love and fascination with organisms of my youth and current curiosity. While I strive to be “somewhat” faithful to each organism’s identification keys, I enjoy introducing whimsy to my work making it engaging and delightful.

 

 

Many of the outlines of members of my menagerie are created in pen and ink and scanned. Other images of my animals and plants are created digitally by juxtaposing outlined ovals and cutting them up and repeating and realigning them along with solid shapes and colors layered in Photoshop.

 

 

Self-designed flame designs, tie-dye, comic book dots, fish scales, etc. can be reused at will. I also create reusable “coffee stain,” paint splatters, and brushstroke patterns that are color-adjustable.

 

 

The character of my nature mandalas is somewhat reminiscent of the “dots and dashes” approach that has resided in my over thirty years of medical and scientific illustration pen and ink mark-making. This keeps my technique very personal and comfortable.

 

 

I am intrigued by craft and ornamentation and introduce this often into my nature mandala subjects and backgrounds. Why not bathe flowers, fish, butterflies, and birds with hot rod fire? Introducing the crafts of tie die, flame painting, and fabric designs, like those found on Mexican horse blankets, into my animal and plant representation allows me to teach others about the historical significance and enjoyment of other elements of art, design, and world culture.

 

 

The essence and act of mandala creation has pulled me in and delivered just as advertised. Mandalas are engaging, thought provoking, meditative and joyful tools.

 

 

Their swirling patterns and colors and rhythmic repeating nature feel fulfilling. Finally, it is the actual creation of individual art assets and placing them in repeating mandala arrangements that brings focus to my objective—a combination of fun and fine art—defining and completing my “art circle.”

 

 

I have created over four hundred mandalas over the past five years. Many of them have ended up in four published books that have received very favorable reviews from the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators, The Association of Medical Illustrators, and The National Association of Biology Teachers.

 

 

Some of my nature mandalas were recently prominently featured in Hopkins Medical Magazine and in Hopkins Magazine. A few of my mandalas will be on permanent display in the new Cancer Hospital at Johns Hopkins.

 

Artist Tim Phelps invites you to follow him on Facebook and Instagram.

 

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