Studying, drawing, and painting plants makes me happier than almost anything else in the world. I love painting the detail that makes people notice beauty that they might otherwise have passed by. I work in the traditional English method of botanical painting. Layer upon layer of watercolor paint is applied using tiny brush strokes to capture the minute detail and subtle nuances of color that make each plant unique. Even a small painting can take over 50 hours to complete.

Denise Walser-Kolar earned her Bachelors Degree in Graphic Design and Commercial Illustration from the College of Visual Arts in Saint Paul, Minnesota. After graduating from college, she worked in the Graphics Department at Mayo Clinic for nearly ten years before starting her own graphic design business. She began taking classes at the Minnesota School of Botanical Art in 2003 and has been teaching at the school since 2006.

Her work has been exhibited at the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, the Bakken Museum in Minneapolis, the 10th Annual Botanical Art Exhibition at Filoli in Woodside, California, the 11th & 12th Annual International Juried Botanical Art Exhibitions presented by The American Society of Botanical Artists and The Horticultural Society of New York, and Focus on Nature XI at the New York State Museum.

Denise lives and paints in Rochester, Minnesota and is focusing on painting the hybrid hazelnuts of Badgersett Research Farm.