Ruffled, luscious gardenias bloom alongside the fiery foliage of canna lilies in Valerie Fowler’s painting Gardenias for Katie. Her works often portray a natural world of extreme beauty and vigor while also commenting on nature’s sensitive vulnerability, exploring the mark we humans make on it.

Fowler grew up in Houston, graduated from the University of Texas, and now resides in Austin. She is an art instructor at the Art School at Laguna Gloria in Austin. She paints or draws daily in her home studio, never far from her garden.