Tatiana Rusakova is a botanical artist, illustrator, watercolorist and art teacher. Trained in classical academic art Tatiana has also worked with a range of mediums over the years, linocutting, sculpting, applied art, and interior and clothing design. Over the past 22 years, she explored many techniques and mediums, but watercolor has always remained her true passion. Today, her focus lies primarily in botanical and book illustration, as well as pattern and surface design.

She has been at Contact for less than a month. After a long period of working as a freelance illustrator, she had started to feel the loneliness of always working on her own. She loves the liveliness of the space here at Contact, the different sounds, and the people around who are working and being creative. She is also looking forward to getting to know more people here.

Her primary ongoing project involves creating a new herbal recipe illustration every week. Tatiana collaborates with herbalists to translate their instructions into cohesive visual storytelling. Other than that, she continues her own botanical illustration work, leads workshops, teaches kids and adults. She also runs a watercolor club here in Amsterdam for fellow watercolor lovers, which you can join.

Nature, traveling and especially hiking is a huge source of Tatiana’s inspiration, but on the other hand, she is also inspired by architecture and urban landscapes. Buildings and environments where the natural and the industrial come together are spaces she finds very inspiring. That’s why the cityscape always appears in her oil paintings as a main character, almost as a person.

One of her large-scale projects was for the Nationale Opera & Ballet in Amsterdam, where she worked with a team to build stage sets. This was one of the biggest and most physically demanding projects but at the same time very fulfilling. On a more personal level, another meaningful project is the series of flowers she has painted over the years dedicated to different people. There are specific flowers that she connects to particular people in her life. It’s basically an informal portrait told through the language of watercolor.