Seeing Nature Through an Artist’s Eyes: Meet Virginia Hein
When artist Virginia Hein moved from Los Angeles to Port Townsend last year, she found herself immersed in an entirely new landscape. The Pacific Northwest’s moss-covered forests, shifting light, and rich textures have become both inspiration and invitation as she explores her new home, and this year, Bloedel Reserve.
Virginia has spent her career as an artist, illustrator, designer, and educator. She taught drawing at Otis College of Art and Design for 13 years and led Sketching on Location workshops at Descanso Gardens in Los Angeles. Today, she teaches sketching workshops both locally and internationally. An active member of the international Urban Sketchers community, Virginia has taught at five international Urban Sketchers Symposiums and will return this summer to teach at the 2026 Symposium in Toulouse, France. Her work has appeared in several books on location sketching, and she is the author of 5 Minute Sketching Landscapes and co-author of The Urban Sketching Handbook: Spotlight on Nature, with Gail L. Wong.
Virginia primarily works in sketchbooks using ink and watercolor, a combination she loves for its spontaneity and expressive qualities. “I love the directness of mark-making with ink while drawing on location,” she says. “Watercolor is a wonderfully spontaneous complement.” She also enjoys experimenting with handmade pigments, gouache, ink washes, and other drawing media.
As one of this year’s Community Creatives, Virginia is embracing the opportunity to observe and interpret the Reserve through fresh eyes. “I’m still learning the language of this new Pacific Northwest location,” she says. “The light, color, and atmosphere are so different here than Southern California. Walking around the Reserve, I am continually surprised by what I see. Moss and mushrooms, tree stumps sprouting new trees, startling colors of lichen, foliage, and flowers…so many things are new to me.”
During her residency, Virginia plans to continue her sketchbook practice while experimenting with new ways of telling visual stories inspired by Japanese folding screens. She hopes to combine multiple moments and perspectives into layered compositions that capture the experience of being immersed in nature.
Teaching is also an essential part of Virginia’s artistic practice. Through years of drawing from observation, she’s discovered something she loves sharing with others: “A kind of miracle of seeing happens as you are drawing. As you intensely focus your attention, things you didn’t notice before seem to appear as if by magic. Drawing from observation, especially in nature, really teaches you to see.”
You can follow Virginia’s work on Instagram at @virginiahein or visit her website at www.vheinstudio.com.
