Heeyoung Kim
Northbrook, Illinois, USA
E-mail: heeyoungkm@yahoo.com
Web Site: www.heeyoungkim.com
Born and educated in South Korea, Heeyoung Kim taught English for 10 years after she got a bachelor degree from Pusan National University, South Korea. She continued her study at the graduate school of Hamburg University, Germany, where she became interested in illustrating children’s book while studying Education and English Language and Literature. 

When she quit her teaching job and moved to the USA, she was naturally attracted to drawing and painting due to the influence of her grandfather, father and siblings who had enjoyed or are still enjoying Sumi painting and calligraphy as hobbies or vocations.

Inspired by Henning Sorensen and Betty Dustman at Northbrook Park District Senior Center, Illinois, she started oil floral paintings and participated in various local exhibitions for two years. Then she took a class taught by Derek Norman at the Chicago Botanic Gardens, Glencoe, Illinois in the winter in 2007. She knew right away what she wanted to do and what she could do better than anything else. Since then she has focused on botanical painting with her mentor, Derek Norman, director of Midwest center of Botanical Documentation and renowned botanical artist and educator.

She sometimes still enjoys oil floral painting as a relaxing break from her extremely detailed and meticulous botanical rendering. She usually does pencil drawing as pre-studies for her botanical watercolors, but she also enjoys putting the last details on her drawings to make them finished pieces. She’d love to do some more pen and ink drawing in the future, because she loves the simplicity and therapeutic quality of black and white.