Sue Wickison

Born and raised in West Africa, Sue first learned to look closely at the natural world while collecting plants with their father in the bush. A degree in Scientific Illustration in London sharpened this eye for observation, later honed over nine years as a freelance illustrator at Kew Gardens. A 2015 visit to the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, where floral rather than geometric patterns covered the walls, sparked an 8-year self-funded journey to find and document the Plants of the Quran from Oman's Jebal Akhdar mountains to the deserts of Sharjah. The project became a collaboration across faiths and disciplines, uniting botanists, scholars, Kew, farmers, and everyday people. The result, Plants of the Quran: History and Culture, is now in its 5th reprint and was celebrated with a 5-month solo exhibition at Kew a body of work exploring where botany, faith, and art converge.