Illustrative Multi-Panel Floral Collages Capture the Boundless Beauty of Nature

Rather than depict flowers in color, Portuguese artist Ani Cuenca captures the beauty of nature in black and white ink. Her abstract, multi-panel wall art is made from layers of cut-out drawings, mimicking the lush environments they’re inspired by.

Cuenca has always had a love for drawing and crafting ever since childhood. She decided to pursue architecture as a young adult, but after years of working behind a computer, she realized how much she missed creating something with her hands. Cuenca would often find herself subconsciously doodling in her notes during meetings. “Without realizing it,” she recalls, “the notebooks were always full of drawings.” Eventually, Cuenca decided to leave her job in architecture and pursue her own art. Her passion is now a full-time career.

Cuenca uses a range of techniques to create her multi-panel art. She begins by rendering her illustrative floral motifs using India ink on watercolor paper. She then cuts out her drawings and pastes them on wooden boards that have often been painted with colorful, geometric sections. Cuenca chooses to depict nature as abstract shapes to allow the viewer to imagine her illustrative landscapes in their own way. “None of us see the world as it really is: each of us sees it according to our shared and individual stories, the colors you see may not be the same colors someone else sees,” she says. “Based on this understanding, I chose to create a black and white nature, so that each one has its own color depending on your imagination.”

Both the layered collage effect and the use of multiple wooden panels allow each composition to grow out from the borders of the canvas. “I imagine the landscape as an organic, fluid mosaic, lush with flowers,” Cuenca reveals. “The flower figures start to relate to each other in a three-dimensional environment.” She adds, “Inside and outside they complement each other between reliefs and shadows.”

Just as nature itself blooms, so does Cuenca’s creative freedom. Perhaps the overflowing compositions also represent the artist’s own mindset. The panels resemble the orderly, architectural forms of her past, but her drawings sprawl across them unconfined, representing her present.

Check out Cuenca’s multi-panel wall art below, and find more from her portfolio on her website.