About / Contact
ABOUT MARGARET
Margaret Saylor is a designer, painter, and botanical artist who finds her subjects in the everyday beauty of the natural world. She is drawn to twigs, leaves, fungi, wild plants, and landscape-influenced objects, creating detailed, richly textured work grounded in close observation. Working in graphite and watercolor on vellum and egg tempera on panel, she focuses on accurate detail while emphasizing shape, form, and luminous, layered color.
ARTIST VISION
I am interested in how close looking can transform the familiar into something quietly extraordinary. I love drawing and building small “worlds” on the page—often a patch of forest floor or a tight slice of landscape—where viewers can linger over tiny shifts in color, texture, and form. My work often focuses on the distinctive colors and moods of the Pennsylvania landscape and the up-close personalities of plants that live within it. I draw on my design background to construct each painting with intention, experimenting with the juxtaposition of graphic shapes and natural forms to create images that feel both thoughtfully composed and deeply rooted in observation.
CONTACT
For classes, exhibitions, collaborations, or editorial inquiries, please get in touch.
BIOGRAPHY
Margaret’s work brings together her design training, classical drawing and painting practices, and a lifelong fascination with the natural world. Her background in communications design and years of experience as a graphic designer continue to inform her compositions, edge relationships, and visual storytelling on the page and panel. Returning to painting with a more hands-on connection to nature, she pursued formal study in botanical art and illustration, deepening both her technical skills—observation, drawing, and layered rendering—and her understanding of plant and fungi forms.
An experienced and encouraging instructor, Margaret teaches botanical art and nature-focused drawing and painting to students of all levels, both online and in person. She brings an atelier-style approach to her teaching, emphasizing careful observation, foundational drawing skills, and step-by-step development from initial studies to finished work. She has taught at institutions such as Longwood Gardens, New York Botanical Garden, Jenkins Arboretum & Gardens, Mt. Cuba Center, Morris Arboretum & Gardens, Historic Yellow Springs, Fleisher Art Memorial, and for the American Society of Botanical Artists’ Annual Conferences.
Margaret is a member of the American Society of Botanical Artists and the Philadelphia Society of Botanical Illustrators, and she frequently exhibits with both organizations. She serves as Editor and Designer of The Botanical Artist, the quarterly journal of the American Society of Botanical Artists. She is also co-founder of The Artful Wild, a teaching platform and community that explores botanical and nature-based art through classes, demos, and ongoing creative practice.
She creates her artwork from her home studio in Mt. Penn, Pennsylvania, working primarily in graphite, watercolor on vellum, and egg tempera.