From the pages of the world's most influential design magazines to an extraordinary new body of botanical art, decorative artist Marian McEvoy brings together centuries-old botanical specimens, contemporary drawing and the craft of decoration in this exhibition in the Leonhardt Galleries shaped by a lifelong devotion to beauty, editing and making.

For decades, McEvoy helped define the visual language of American and international design. As European editor of Women’s Wear Daily and W in Paris, founding editor of Elle Décor and later editor-in-chief of House Beautiful, she cultivated an influential eye for style. In 2002, she left publishing to begin a new creative chapter at her 18th-century farmhouse overlooking the Hudson River, where she turned her editorial instincts toward making objects by hand.

The resulting works are intricate botanical collages composed from pressed leaves, flowers, seed pods, and stems, many dating to the 18th century and rescued from antique herbariums, attics and private collections. McEvoy combines these fragile remnants with spontaneous lines drawn in ink, marker and pencil, creating compositions that are at once botanical and painterly, disciplined and playful as they preserve, reinterpret and celebrate the natural world.

“Indoor Gardening” provides an immersive autumn landscape. Rich browns, bronze, gold, and black evoke the warmth of harvest, while resin urns and vases marked with delicate white botanical patterns create a dialogue between preservation and new growth. Branches and cuttings from Berkshire Botanical Garden further connect living plant material with botanical history.

McEvoy’s approach reflects the decisiveness that defined her editorial career: Look closely, trust your instincts and know when to let go. Her work demonstrates that decoration is more than embellishment; it can transform the spaces of everyday life.

At Berkshire Botanical Garden

August 29 THROUGH Oct. 30