Mara Orenstein

Mara Orenstein is a scientific illustrator and artist rooted in the Pacific Northwest. She's been drawing since childhood and always had a fascination with nature and music. Mara achieved a bachelor's of arts degree from Seattle University in Environmental Studies, with a specialization in Ecological Systems in 2018. While abroad in southern Chile during the austral summer of 2017, she studied and connected with the regional flora and fauna through drawing. Mara joined the University of Washington's Natural Science Illustration program in the fall of 2019 for a year-long immersion into natural history illustration, scientific drafting, and botanical art. Mara joined the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators - Northwest in 2023.

Currently, Mara is continuing to craft her own style in oil painting, pen & ink drawing, and calligraphy. From a home studio in the Pacific Coastal Temperate Rainforest of the PNW, she has taken up an amateur study in Lepidoptera in order to bring audiences a series of oil paintings honoring Pacific Northwest moth species. She hopes to have this series finished by the end of 2024. As with all her art, Mara encourages her audience to see the world around them in an entirely humble, compassionate, and interdependent way.

www.gardenwitch.art