I started painting herbs because I couldn't stop smelling them. Walk anywhere on the east coast in June and the air is thick with thyme and oregano. It gets into your clothes, your hair, your sketchbook.
These aren't decorative plants. They're medicine, food, ritual, and history compressed into tiny leaves. Every one of them has a story that goes back thousands of years.
Olive (Olea europaea)
The obvious one, but for good reason. Crete has olive trees that are over 3,000 years old. The Vouves tree in western Crete still produces olives. Let that sink in - a tree that was already ancient when the Minoans were building Knossos.
I drew the branch with dark Koroneiki olives, the variety that makes the strong, peppery oil Crete is famous for. Silver-green leaves on cream paper. It's the most popular print in the collection because everyone who's been to Crete has stood under an olive tree.
Dittany of Crete (Origanum dictamnus)
This one's special. Diktamo grows only in Crete, nowhere else on earth. It clings to cliff faces in the mountains and the Minoans used it to heal wounds. The myth says wild goats who were shot by arrows would eat diktamo and the arrows would fall out.
Fuzzy rounded leaves, small pink-purple hanging flowers. It looks delicate but it's tough as the mountains it grows on.
Wild Thyme (Thymus vulgaris)
Cretan thyme honey is considered some of the best in the world. The bees that make it feed almost exclusively on wild thyme flowers. You'll see the tiny purple flower clusters on every hillside from May to October.
The drawing is one of the most detailed in the collection. Tiny leaves on woody stems, each flower cluster rendered individually.
Greek Oregano (Origanum vulgare)
Not the dusty stuff in the jar at home. Fresh Cretan oregano is an entirely different plant. The locals call it rigani and they dry it in bunches on their balconies. It goes on everything - salads, meat, cheese, even in tea.
White-pink flower clusters at the top of branching stems. Simple, elegant, essential.
Fig (Ficus carica)
Fig trees grow everywhere in Crete, often in places that seem impossible - out of stone walls, through cracks in concrete. The leaves are one of the most beautiful shapes in nature, those big distinctive lobes.
I painted one ripe purple fig and one green one, because figs ripen at different speeds on the same branch. With the large lobed leaves, it's the most dramatic piece in the botanical set.
Cretan Sage (Salvia fruticosa)
Faskomilo, as the locals call it. They boil the leaves and drink the tea for everything - sore throats, stomach aches, or just because it tastes good. The purple flower spikes are striking against the silver-green textured leaves.
The set
All six are available as individual prints or as a curated set. The set is designed to work as a gallery wall - same style, same paper, consistent spacing. Kitchen wall, dining room, or hallway.
The botanical set is the one I'd put in my own home. In fact, I did.
