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Artist Uses Wood Slices as Organic Canvas for Nature-Themed Portraits

Netherlands-based artist Kirsten Roodbergen celebrates the organic beauty of a wooden canvas with her bold, nature-themed drawings. Working on small slices of cross-sectioned tree trunks, she uses acrylic and Copic markers to depict creatures such as bats, wolves, owls, and moths. Each hand-crafted creation covers the wood's inner rings, yet the design follows its natural shape with one-of-a-kind bark framing.

Roodbergen is skilled in several types of artistic media. In addition to tree drawings, she tattoos similarly-themed designs onto clients, and it's clear that this creative endeavor has influenced her works on wood–they have the dark outlines and style of shading that's popular in a traditional tattoo style.

Roodbergen's original artworks are now for sale in her Etsy shop.

Kirsten Roodbergen: Instagram | Etsy

Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes is a Staff Editor at My Modern Met, Manager of My Modern Met Store, and co-host of the My Modern Met Top Artist Podcast. As an illustrator and writer living in Seattle, she chronicles illustration, embroidery, and beyond through her blog Brown Paper Bag and Instagram @brwnpaperbag. She wrote a book about embroidery artist Sarah K. Benning titled "Embroidered Life" that was published by Chronicle Books in 2019. Sara is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art. She earned her BFA in Illustration in 2008 and MFA in Illustration Practice in 2013.
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