Mary Barnas Pomeroy finished her 146-page book—one that overflows with color and insight—recently. Its inspiration began to accumulate long ago, though, when Pomeroy was a young child running the wild landscapes of her native province of Hessen, Germany. She credits her father, a well-known painter, as the one who brought both her love for nature (and painting) to life.
In her second homeland—Quito, Ecuador—her love for botany grew. There it inspired 200 color illustrations of the wildflowers of the jungles, and the majestic Andes Mountains.

Now her love for Mama Nature’s prettier plants has found the wildflowers of the West Coast. And she wants to share.
"The purpose of this book is to share my love for these gorgeous wildflowers,” she says. “Each species fills its particular place in nature's plan. Therefore, let us all be thoughtful how we can protect and preserve, preventing unnecessary carelessness and destruction."

The message is particularly important to younger readers, Pomeroy feels. As she writes in the introduction, the book is "to the young people growing up in this age of intensified mechanization and artifice: To keep them in tune with our beautiful earth, they will need wild flowers to speak to their hearts."

Pomeroy immigrated to the U.S. after 10 years in Ecuador to attend The Pennsylvania Academy of The Fine Arts. After two years of intensive study in painting, she moved to the California coast, becoming an illustrator for the University of California's botany department at Berkeley.

Pomeroy has lofty ambitions for her work. "I [strive] for directness, freshness and luminosity,” she says, “and the feel of life in its various moods." The book delivers that feel with vibrant radiating color.

"As I walk my trail, I'm delighted to see no ice plants in this particular expanse of grassland and scrub,” she writes. “I must enjoy the perfection of the original composition. This is the Pacific coast flora in full spring bloom: sky-blue California lilac; paintbrushes ranging from lemon-yellow, salmon to orange to glowing reds; pearly-everlasting just opening."
 
Mary Barnas Pomery's book Favorite Wildflowers of the West Coast can be purchased at ParkPlacePublications.com or by calling 659-2012.