Paul Veenvliet

Paul has no fantasy. This is what a primary school teacher concluded. While other boys drew airplanes and castles, I tried to get the number of digits in a beetle’s leg correct. Such comments meant that I received little formal training, but I nevertheless kept on drawing. For me, artwork is a means to communicate both knowledge and passion about the natural world.

While I have a life-long fascination with tiny details, I sometimes reduce my work to a single line, for instance to clarify the difference between similar species. In other drawings, I combine thousands of tiny dots to an intricate, layered pattern. While it never equals a living animal or plant, I imagine that my drawings accurately depict the original, that was created by nature. My schoolteacher was correct: I do not try to draw something that does not already exist. 

When I am not creating artwork, I work as a nature guide (www.slovenia-nature-guide.si) or as biologist.