Nina Mayes

United Kingdom

Nina Jayne Mayes is a botanical artist with a background in Ecology and Conservation. Nina has always had a passion for nature with a childhood full of country walks, gardening and drawing animals. She graduated with a degree in Zoology with Marine Zoology at Bangor University and completed her Masters in Wildlife Management and Conservation at Reading University before working for the Environment Agency as an Environmental Monitoring Officer, specialising in the identification and monitoring of aquatic invertebrates and macrophytes in rivers.

Nina was torn between science and art as she was completing her Secondary School education but after 10 years working as an ecologist, she discovered an opportunity to combine her two areas of expertise and completed the Chelsea School of Botanical Art Diploma. It seemed only natural that she would combine her background in macrophytes with her artistic ability to produce a series of six water plants. The combination of scientific and artistic accuracy is something that she strives to achieve in her paintings and she takes great pride in showcasing the finer details and key identification features of the subjects of her art. Nina still takes part in citizen science, volunteering for the Riverfly Partnership where she samples her local chalk stream for invertebrates to monitor the water quality.