Enumclaw artist Linda Petchnick has been chosen to provide paintings for an orchid exhibit at the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C., next to the Capitol building, from Saturday through April 11. The U.S. Botanic Garden is a branch of the Smithsonian museums.

The painting is titled Angraecum sesquipedale, Darwin’s orchid. Petchnick said a print of the painting was recently published in a book about Charles Darwin. It was also published in a German pharmaceutical journal, “Deutsche Apotheker Zeitung,” and in an Italian garden magazine, “Gardinia.” Angraecum sesquipedale was also exhibited in England and at the Houston Museum of Science in Texas where it became part of a 2-1/2 year traveling exhibit across the United States.

Petchnick has worked as a product designer, muralist and watercolorist. She has a bachelor of fine arts in industrial design from the University of Washington.

Petchnick recently finished painting 50 of the more than 1,000 orchids from the teaching collection of the University of Washington’s Department of Biology. In August 2008, she exhibited these paintings at Suzzallo Library at the University of Washington and in 2007 Delray Beach, Fla. Her paintings have been published in numerous orchid books authored by world-renown orchid taxonomist Dr. Guido Braem.

She has also painted 10 historical municipal and private murals.

In September, Petchnick won Best Painting of Show in New York City at Horticulture Society of New York and American Society of Botanical Artist exhibit. She also had a painting in an exhibit at the Phoenix Art Museum that ran from October through December.

For more information on Petchnick or her work visit her Web site, www.orchidpainter.com.

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