Flowering Cactus Species Print

When I started out doing botanical art while living in NYC, I was mainly focused on succulents, because they were the only plants small enough to maintain a collection on a small apartment windowsill. After a couple of years I became fascinated with cacti in particular, not really because of their spines, but because I fell in love with their brief, fireworks-like floral displays.  I started scouting out the plant shops all around the city and buying any cactus that had flower buds forming, because it was too difficult to provide enough light to induce blooming on plants in my apartment. Then it was a fun challenge to paint the cactus and its flowers from life in the brief window while they were open - sometimes just a few hours at peak.