Portland-based illustrator Camille Shu has been doing art her whole life, be it murals, commercial and editorial work or paintings. In addition, she has also been a florist, as well as working part-time on a farm. So it makes sense that her illustrations combine her love for nature, flowers, and fruit – through brightly colored pieces and delightful compositions.
Describing her aesthetic as “colorful and funky,” she likes to paint realistic things but also enjoys simplifying subjects into abstract shapes and colors. Using mainly Gouache, she hopes to bring more color into people’s lives through her art, as well as help people appreciate the world around us.
Amongst the many things that inspire her, she mentions “plants and the things they do/make.” “I’m in complete awe of the things that grow around us,” she told Ballpitmag. “Fruit, flowers, trees, all of it. Something simple like opening a blood orange from the store is a religious experience for me and makes me want to immediately get painting.”
But she’s also greatly inspired by people, and women specifically. “Women I work with, mainly the woman who owns the farm I work at part-time and the woman who runs a flower shop that I worked at after college,” she says. “They’re two people who work with plants in very different ways but respect them and see their potential for making people’s lives more joyful.”
Take a bite out of her colorful work:
