Tentacles by Daisy Chung

If you’ve ever wondered about the artwork that illustrates science textbooks, field guides, and interpretive signs in parks and nature preserves, you have the opportunity to learn about it at the Musem.

Illustrating Nature, the sixth annual exhibit of work by students in the California State University, Monterey Bay Science Illustration Program, will be on display at the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History May 2 through June 14. 

An opening reception will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. on May 1.

The 66 framed illustrations and several field sketchbooks in the exhibit depict wildlife, flowering plants and extinct creatures including kingfishers, knobbed hornbills, tooth-nosed snout weevils, leafy sea dragons, mountain lions, passion flowers, sundews, and Archaeopteryx and Tyrannasaurus rex, all created using a variety of media including colored pencil, watercolor, gouache, acrylic and digital media.

A demonstration of science illustration methods and techniques will be held at the museum from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on May 9. 

In 2009, the science illustration program relocated from UC Santa Cruz Extension to CSUMB. One of the most prestigious programs of its kind in the nation, it prepares students who are sought after by scientific institutions and publications around the world. Graduates are working at the Smithsonian Institution; New York’s American Museum of Natural History; the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History; the Monterey Bay Aquarium; and National Geographic, Scientific American and Nature magazines.