Patrick O'Hara Art at SBBG

Patrick O'Hara's watercolor collection, "Wildflowers of California", specially commissioned by the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, is the culmination of a lifetime involvement with plant conservation, and nearly 40 years experience as an artist.

O'Hara has established a worldwide reputation for his own particular style of botanical works of art over four decades — firstly making unique, life-size, porcelain sculptures, and then more recently for his paintings in watercolor.

Patrick's abiding concern is that his work should be used to champion the conservation of plants in their own natural habitats. Most traditional botanical artwork has tended to depict plant specimens with great fidelity but isolated from nature.

His work is based on personal observations of plants in nature with their associated insects and other animals, helping us to understand the relationships that are what ecology is all about.

View recent SBBG Ironwood articles about Patrick O'Hara:

• Wild About Wildflowers – Patrick O'Hara and his Magnificent Obsession, 2008
• The Wild Irish: World-renowned Artist Patrick O'Hara Paints the Wildflowers of California, 2007 

Some of the watercolors in the Patrick O'Hara Collection at SBBG:

Limited edition prints, signed by the artist, are available for purchase in the SBBG Garden Shop