Botanicals and Brushes

Margie Bauer’s exploration of nature on canvas

By Liesel Schmidt

There are no straight lines in Margie Bauer’s path to becoming an artist. In fact, much like the drawings she creates, her journey has been a colorful one, filled with interesting details that make it captivating, inspiring—and some might even say whimsical. As a child growing up in Cincinnati, Bauer helped in her grandparents' garden and realized a deep love of nature. “In the fourth grade, we read Born Free, and that just had a huge impact on me,” she recalls. “I just wanted to be like Joy Adamson and live with my husband in the middle of nowhere, taking care of animals.”

Bauer’s early dreams of pursuing a degree in biology were cemented as she found that she was drawn to math and science, excelling in both. Left brained though she was, she was also creative—though her parents steered her towards a more “practical” career that would offer her security. After graduation, she pursued a degree in chemistry at Ohio Northern University.

It was during her college years that Bauer’s love for nature began to resurface. After realizing that advanced studies in chemistry weren’t for her, Bauer joined the Peace Corps and served in Zaire from 1983 to 1985, teaching chemistry in French and immersing herself in the local culture. This experience reignited her passion for working with the natural world and inspired her to seek out experiences that would feed that passion. She went on to travel around the globe, eventually earning a degree in Agricultural Economics and joining the U.S. Foreign Service as an agricultural attaché, where she spent the next 30 years promoting U.S. agricultural interests overseas at embassies in Indonesia, the Caribbean and beyond. As she approached retirement, she found herself face-to-face with a question: "What do I want to do when I grow up?"

The answer, she realized, was literally on a blank canvas.

Having completely turned off the creative side of brain, Bauer initially found herself drawn to botanical illustration when she picked up a paint brush at the age of 45. “Botanical illustration is, by definition, precise work,” she says. “It’s very carefully and accurately copying a plant—which, having worked so far on the left side of my brain for so long, was a good transition for me. But it was also confining. So eventually, I got really bored with strictly copying and wanted something of my own, something that would give me more creative freedom.”

And so began her exploration of Zen Doodling, also Zentangle, a style of drawing that involves creating intricate patterns and designs within a picture. Naturally, Bauer’s pieces are all inspired by nature, from animals to insects and plants. “I just wanted to get people more interested in nature,” she says. “I’m fascinated by it, and I think we all need a better understanding of it.”

Unconventional though it may have been, Zen Doodling allowed Bauer to combine her love for nature with her desire to inspire others—which she does not only through her paintings, illustrations and hand painted quilts but also by teaching art and volunteering her time. At the Highlands Biological Station’s Botanical Gardens, she helps educate visitors about the local flora during her six months each year in Cashiers. During the remainder of the year, she lives in Coral Gables, and volunteers with the Million Orchid Project at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in their work to restore native orchid populations in South Florida. “Teaching is a big part of what I love doing, in a way that’s giving back,” Bauer says.

She appreciates support from colleagues in the Art League, the Oconee Chapter of the North Carolina Native Plant Society and the Cashiers Quilters as well as the staff and volunteers of the Highlands Botanic Garden. She teaches a variety of art classes for children and adults at the Highlands Biological Station, the Nature Center, Half Mile Farm, Fusion Yoga and Wellness, the Cashiers Quilters and the Bascom during Community Day.  In addition to selling giclee prints and cards through the shop at the Bascom, her artwork is sold in retail outlets in Highlands, Cashiers, Sylva, Toxaway, Brevard and Flatrock.

As a member of the Tropical Botanic Artists group in Miami, she has exhibited at more than 50 venues in private galleries in addition to being featured at national, state and local parks. Her artwork is available at many retail outlets in the Highlands Plateau area including Main Street Gifts in Highlands as well as south Florida. “I want to share my fascination with nature,” Bauer says. “We need a better understanding of it, and I hope my work helps people do that.”