Hello…I’m Kriss.
In my botanical art photography and designs I capture the momentary beauty of flowers and nature as they appear and fade throughout the year.
Each one is a seasonal story. Now based in the Algarve in Southern Portugal, I seek inspiration with nature walks and in the garden, observing and embracing the colours and rhythm of each season.
Most of the flowers and nature finds in the botanical photos are wild, locally sourced, grown in my garden and some dried in my studio. I create my botanical art compositions with this flora usually on canvas or wooden backdrops. They are then shot in natural light. A moment in nature’s time captured.
I’m especially wild about wild flowers and how they are essential and beneficial to the environment. I study, identify and collect native wild flowers to have a better understanding of their seasonal cycles and habitats.
Wild About Here by Kriss MacDonald
Large Giclee prints of my botanical art photography are currently exhibited and available in the Algarve at Quinta Bay (Jim’s) in Almancil and the Corte Real Art Gallery in Paderne.
I’m also creating botanical style designs for fabrics and a lifestyle range. The designs and patterns are based on my seasonal floral art photography.
Textiles, home accessories and limited edition prints will be available soon on Wild About Here. I will give updates in future newsletters.
My Story
Back at home I live in an old farmhouse in the Algarve countryside surrounded by orange orchards and wild flowers. I have a studio in our courtyard…but it’s never quiet here as I have wild ‘tween’ twins, a geek genius husband who works in another annex, my mother in a cottage in our garden, a sweet dog who is my constant shadow and a feral – now home loving – kitten we rescued when he was 3 weeks old.
Here I’m planting a flower garden from scratch after it was left abandoned for years, although it’s filled with fruit trees including olive, carob, orange, lemon, plum, loquat, fig and even an ancient grape vine outside my studio. And slowly I’m repainting and fixing up the inside of our house.
I turned to recording nature and flowers with my camera after a career covering conflicts and breaking news stories with AP and NBC News in Europe, USA, Asia and the Middle East. I have a BA degree in Art and Art History from Amherst College, a diploma from what is now called the Beijing Language and Culture University and a Master’s degree in East Asian Studies from Harvard.
My twins were born in London but since then we’ve lived by the beach in the Hamptons, USA, in the middle of a nature reserve in Sussex, England, but are now settled in the Algarve, Portugal.
My blog
Passionate about the importance of nature in my twins’ lives, I started writing about outdoor adventures with kids in my blog. I believe that children who explore and learn about the wild and beautiful outdoors will grow up wanting to protect it. Amherst College featured my post on the importance of nature walks with kids. I also record and photograph flora and fauna where we’ve visited and lived. You can find out more about my blog here.
You can read more about me in the following recent features: Curly Carrot Interview (2019) and Mimo Food Feature (2019)
![A secret of my garden is that here and there it is filled with fruits, flowers and herbs that have medicinal and culinary benefits. I know I’m rather fond of flowers’ common names, but also getting clues from their Latin names. Borage, Sage, Pot Marigold (Borago officinalis, Salvia officinalis, Calendula officinalis)…all have Latin names ending with ‘officinalis’ meaning ”of the apothecary shop.” Early pharmacies or apothecary shops were known as officinas🌿🌱🌺
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We have two lemon trees that provide fruit all year round. 🍋Lemons are ‘Citrus medica’…medica meaning useful as a medicine or curative. I’ve sprinkled rose petals on cakes and in baths. I also have Aloe vera in my succulent garden area in case we need it for sunburns. I have Rose pelargonium shrubs flowering in the garden all grown from little cuttings.
[Gifted Book] And now I also have lots of skin care recipes to try out, many which include ingredients in my garden or kitchen, after being gifted this book by the @herbalacademy … I think the Gardener’s Hand Cream recipe will be a must for me! (see my Story )
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This has also given me a wonderful flashback of when my now teen-wild-twins were toddlers. We lived in London and my favourite retreat with them was driving over and spending a morning wandering around and sitting on one of the lawns at the Chelsea Physics Garden of which I was a member…it was originally founded in 1673 by Apothecaries to grow and study key medicinal plants. There was always a magical and peaceful feeling there – and without fail it had a surprising curative effect on my twins as they always laughed quietly and played beautifully there!](https://wildabouthere.com/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)