Flora
A Botanical Arts Community
Flora is a membership for artists and people who are botanically creative
- or aspire to be!
I'm ready to join!
Welcome to Cara’s Garden, a community where you are empowered to grow as a botanical artist, in a safe, nurturing space.
Would you like to...
- Commit to your botanical sketchbook practice?
- Learn tips and techniques for painting plants in watercolor?
- Learn a fun (digestible) bit of botany to help you get to know the plants you are drawing and painting?
- Engage with a community of plant enthusiasts who also love botanical art?
- Make time to enjoy nature, sharpen your observational skills, and create art based on what inspires you?
Then the Flora Botanical Arts Membership is the right place for you. It is a beautiful online space where you'll have immediate access to a library of botanical art lessons that you can watch whenever you want. New lessons are released every Wednesday, and we meet live once a month to answer questions and paint together.
There is an ongoing monthly sketchbook challenge (and fun prizes!).
Flora is a place where you will find support as a beginner and accountability as a seasoned artist, and it's a place where we can all find our people.
I'm Cara, and I have been a botanical artist for more than 25 years. Teaching people about plants through botanical art brings me so much joy -- I look forward to helping you reach your goals!
Krista Vogt
“In an often hectic world, Cara invites us to slow down and connect with nature and our innate creativity. Through Flora, Cara has broadened my curiosity and willingness to try new things in my adventures in gardening and traditional hand drawn art.”
Robyn Chausse
The Flora Membership has helped me improve my skills, and stay with a daily sketching practice. In a matter of a few months, Flora has taken me from "stick figures" to sketching in perspective, and becoming comfortable using watercolors (something I had not intended).
What I like is that each art lesson builds upon the previous lesson, so new artists can start at the beginning and grow, or more experienced members can just jump in and follow along. Along with the botanical education and the information on gardening that is often shared, each week offers something to look forward to!
Flora has become more than just an illustration course for me; it has become a part of my artistic routine, providing inspiration and a safe community for sharing my work."
Christine Martell
I'm a professional artist who has been working primarily digitally for the last decade. It's been a long time since I used traditional media and my style is different from Cara's. I joined Flora to bring me back to basics. I'm rusty drawing with a pencil and doing watercolor on paper. The membership gives me a way to shore up my fundamental skills while learning more about the flowers I love to draw.
The best way to learn how to paint flowers is to learn more about them. With lessons in botany, traditional and contemporary botanical art techniques, and full length projects, your botanical knowledge will increase, and your botanical art will stand out.
This is not about doing the same art as someone else, it is about deeper learning.
The skills you learn and the knowledge you gain will impact how you see the botanical world, and how you describe it with your art.
Whether you are a seasoned artist, or you are just getting started, we have a place for you
Start with the basics like learning about what supplies to use and how to begin drawing, or jump in and use the projects and monthly sketchbook prompts as a way to hone your skills
A new, seasonal theme every month with four new lessons:
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Sketching
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Botany
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Watercolor
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Live call to answer your questions or paint along
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A community you always have access to
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Challenges
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A place to ask, and answer questions
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Share your work
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Ask for feedback
We love spaces like this. We love flowers, we love art, and we love to talk about it. We love to create.
Painting flowers is one thing, but learning how to really see them and how they are put together is another thing completely. Build your skill with depth, over time, at a gentle pace.
A supportive community is there for you when you want to share your knowledge about flowers, get feedback on your art, or find inspiration when you are feeling stuck.
Keri Innes
" The warm, encouraging space that Cara ha created with the Flora Community has allowed me to find a lost part of my soul. I see beauty all around me every day with new eyes and feel that old familiar pull to dream and create. I have visions of what I want to sketch or paint and your lessons and live demonstrations have helped me develop skills to bring things out of my head and onto paper in ways I didn't know were possible for me"
What’s inside Flora?
Flora is a botanical art membership and community
The Flora membership is built around monthly themes. New lessons, including art techniques, botany, sketching,full length watercolor tutorials, and live meetups are released weekly.
A new theme every month
A new project lesson delivered with a combination video, audio, slides, and sometimes PDF downloads - every month
A live Q&A every month in the Flora Community where you can ask questions and get feedback on your work
A mini botany lesson every month
A private community right inside the Flora platform
Monthly Challenges
Bonus lessons
Library of lessons
Hilde S.
"Flora is a great place to grow as a watercolor artist. I find it a challenge to draw what I see, rather than trace. It is a good thing to do as an artist. And it's not always easy to know what you want to paint, so having lessons each month is helpful. Learning a bit of botany along the way also helps you to really 'see' your subject and I really enjoy painting the different topics for each season, since our gardens are seasonal! That's a lot of fun, too. The Live lessons are a fantastic way to get questions answered, specifically a technique you don't understand as she can show you right then and there. Flora has so much content, one could spend months on any one feature. A wonderful platform all around, especially if you love plants."
Krista V.
“In an often hectic world, Cara invites us to slow down and connect with nature and our innate creativity. Through Flora, Cara has broadened my curiosity and willingness to try new things in my adventures in gardening and traditional hand drawn art.”
Christine M.
"I'm a professional artist who has been working primarily digitally for the last decade. It's been a long time since I used traditional media and my style is different from Cara's. I joined Flora to bring me back to basics. I'm rusty drawing with a pencil and doing watercolor on paper. The membership gives me a way to shore up my fundamental skills while learning more about the flowers I love to draw."
Why have a botanical art practice?
• To have a more meaningful, holistic life, nurturing a connection with nature is an essential practice
• Art helps us to become more in tune with nature and thus more in tune with ourselves, cultivating our deeper, creative nature
• Through our connection with nature, we can feel a deeper connection with something
bigger than ourselves -- something that is alive and reflects the interconnection of all living things
• Art is one of the most powerful tools of self-discovery
• In a world that is becoming more digital and often feels less human, the ability to connect with the organic elements of nature and to our own analog processes of creating resonates with the part of ourselves that longs for something more authentic and tangible than images on screens
• We long for connection with others and with nature, and botanical art offers us a way to strengthen that connection
Here are just a few examples of the lessons you will find in Flora!
Is Flora a course?
How much does it cost to join Flora?
How do I cancel my membership?
Is there a money back guarantee?
What if I am a complete beginner?
Can my kids do this with me?
Can I give Flora as a gift?
What supplies do I need?
How do I know if Flora is NOT for me?
Are you ready to make progress on your drawing and painting?
The best way to make progress is to start. Commit to your practice.
I'm ready to join Flora!