Jenna Bertschi (Spruill Arts Staff) | May 29, 2026
Spruill watercolor student Maddie Brown forgoes flowers and beautiful landscape scenes in favor of dissected sea hares, muskrat mandibles, and gooseneck barnacles.
“I just like anything that’s kind of strange [or] weird,” she said.
Maddie, who holds a degree in aquatic biology, will be moving to California this fall to pursue a graduate certificate in scientific illustration. Her mandible and barnacle paintings, created under the guidance of Spruill instructor Kristin Compton, are part of the portfolio that got her accepted.
Most of the pieces in Maddie’s portfolio were painted from images taken during her college courses and labs, such as her detailed rendering of the freshwater snail Biomphalaria or her colorful depiction of a dissected sea hare. One of her favorite pieces – which depicts two gooseneck barnacles – was based on an image she took of a tidepool off the coast of Oregon. For Maddie, turning images into paintings helps her more deeply appreciate what she’s looking at.
“I don’t know, it’s just something about sitting down and taking all that time to paint something. I feel like I really understand it a lot better, and I really have an appreciation for all the colors and lines and textures in a way that I don’t about anything else,” she explained.
Freshwater snail Biomphalaria as viewed through a microscope (Maddie Brown, 2025)
Her medium of choice – watercolor – adds an extra layer to the process. Achieving the extreme precision and detail required of scientific illustration with watercolors, a medium known for its soft lines and fluidity, isn’t easy.
“I feel like I see it as a challenge, and I just love that part of it,” she said. “It’s very much going through lots of stages of like, this does not look good at all, or like this isn’t what I want… and it’s very much just sticking with it until it looks the way I want it to.”
Two gooseneck barnacles within a tide pool (Maddie Brown, 2025)
Scientific illustration first caught Maddie’s attention a few years ago – shortly before her college graduation. Though immersed in art classes as a teenager, she hadn’t spent time on her art in several years.
“I didn’t think that I had the skills, and… I never built a portfolio before. So I didn’t really know where to begin, and so I just kind of pushed it aside,” she said.
Her decision to apply came last spring.
“I’d been taking [Kristin’s] watercolor class, I was feeling really confident, feeling good about it, and… it just kind of clicked,” she explained.
As for how she’ll use her new-found scientific illustration skills, Maddie is leaving the future wide open.
“I think I’m just excited to find out what’s possible,” she said. “…ever since graduating college, things have been so… unknown and scary and everything, but I feel like I finally gained an appreciation for like, it just takes time and you’ll figure it out.”
We’re excited to see where Maddie’s work ends up – in science museums, textbooks, or beyond!
A dissected sea hare (Maddie Brown, 2025)
