Sarah Jane Humphrey

About the researcher

My distinctive style has made me a coveted botanical illustrator within my field. Becoming an award-winning Artist with four RHS Medals from one of the most prestigious Botanical Art exhibitions in the world. In 2023 I accepted the gold medal awarded for my collection of seaweed paintings at the Saatchi Gallery in London. Clients include the Royal Mint, The Royal College of Physicians, Harrods and Louis Vuitton with publications spanning across journals, magazines and books.  

My practice outside of the commercial industry gently disrupts the conventions of botanical illustration through an alchemical ecology that reimagines how we connect with the natural world. Rooted in an esoteric framework, my work interrogates the visual language traditionally used to classify, control, and distance us from nature. Instead, I seek to reframe this relationship by constructing alternative narratives that imbue seaweed with reverence, emotion, and agency. Working meticulously with bio-sonification, raw materials and botanical paintings—I draw on their intrinsic properties to underscore the dualities embedded in our ecological experience. 

My work underpins a speculative rethinking of how we might live with nature if it were held within a higher sense of reverence. Feminine and human emotional registers are entangled with broader political-environmental discourses, questioning the extractive tendencies of anthropocentrism. By layering symbolic gestures with sensitive mark-making, my compositions invite a ritualistic, intuitive form of observation—one that elevates the overlooked and honours the sacred within phycological ecology. 

Research interests

Botanical Illustration, phycological ecologies, esoteric studies, including dark botany, vibrational energy, sacred geometry, numerology, Hermeticism, and telepathy. Fieldwork and research respond to deep observation using bio-sonification, wild soundscapes and microscopy. 

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PhD abstract

Thesis title

Unseen Dialogues: Engaging with Phycology to reimagine new forms of Botanical illustration. 

Abstract

Phycology is the botanical study of seaweed; This research explores methods of audio-visual environments to perform as a methodology to build an immersive installation of representational botanical illustration. 

The chronological history of botanical illustration has barely altered over time, dating back over 3500 years. During this period, it has been driven by informative scientific artworks as observed by anthropogenic visual perspective. In 1753 the Linnean taxonomical classification ‘Species Plantarum’ was published, a binomial nomenclature of plants that formed a universal language, using Latin names to share information without linguistic fluctuation. Whilst this system created an ordering of chaos in the natural world it also pacified the spirit of plants and animals. This project initiates an alternative framework where botanical illustration represents a picture of rich sensory workings of more-than-human life force where phycological ecologies interact with the environment beyond what is observed purely by human vision. Using the impetus of fieldwork and close observations of sound, microscopy and divination to inform the outcome of reimagined botanical illustration. These specific areas of research are designed to probe into deeper unseen knowledge of seaweed, testing them to create a context for how we perceive the dynamic liveliness and intelligence of plant communication, beyond what has been historically visualised in botanical illustration. 

Qualifications

  • 1993, BTEC Technical Illustration, College of West Anglia 
  • 1998, BA (Hons) Illustration, Falmouth School of Arts 
  • 2026, MA Fine Art, Falmouth University 

Honours & awards

  • 2016, Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Botanical Art. Silver Medal 
  • 2017, Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Botanical Art. Silver Gilt Medal 
  • 2018, Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Botanical Art. Gold Medal 
  • 2023, Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Botanical Art. GoldMedal 

Contributions

  • 2014 - 2015 - Guest Speaker: Royal Horticultural Society Hampton Court Palace, London 
  • 2015 - Guest speaker and panellist: Invasive Species Annual Conference. Manchester Science Museum 
  • 2015 - Guest Speaker: Royal Horticultural Society, London 
  • 2016 - Exhibition: Royal Horticultural Society, Malvern. 
  • 2017 - 2018 Exhibition: Royal Horticultural Society, London 
  • 2018 Exhibition: Royal College of Physicians, London 
  • 2023 Exhibition: Royal Horticultural Society, Saatchi Gallery, London 
  • 2023 Exhibition: Plantae, The Mall Galleries, London 
  • 2024 Guest Speaker, The Garden Museum, London 
  • 2025 Exhibition: Plantae, The Mall Galleries, London 
  • 2026 Exhibition: The Graduate Art Show, London 

Grants

  • 2018, R&D Funding, Cultivator Cornwall 
  • 2025, Scholarship, Biophilia, Sound Residency Dionsky 
  • 2025, Project Funding, CSM Trust – Seedcorn funding