Local Artist Sandy Harris Creates First Greenwich Sustainability Award

By Ashley Cole

As a child growing up in Texas and Colorado, Sandy Harris filled her days following her environmentalist father around the wild plains and mountains where he introduced her to the beauty of the natural world.

“He would pick up a rock and show me the amazing striations and varied colors in it whether is was a piece of jasper or quartz,” Harris said. “He taught me to look at the shape of trees and the flight paths of birds – to really see the world around us and that we are all part of the same ecosystem. My father taught me to look at the world as an artist would and I have lived that way ever since.” 

The Greenwich Sustainability Committee is grateful for both Sandy and her father, as Sandy has lent her considerable talents to our community in creating custom artwork for the first annual Greenwich Sustainability Award to be given to 10 deserving Greenwich citizens this April 1.

The event will coincide with the reading of the Earth Day proclamation and the ReThink Waste event at Christ Church. The printed certificates showcase Sandy’s considerable talent with watercolors. The award features the colorful autumn leaves of the Virginia Creeper and Maple trees, both of which are native to Connecticut.

Sandy has studied extensively at the NY Botanical Garden and received her Certificate of Botanical Art and Illustration in 2015. In order to achieve the level of detail she puts into her botanicals, Sandy has put in hours upon hours of rigorous study. She has spent hundreds of those hours drawing specimens from life but has also studied plant morphology as well as mastering techniques in watercolor, pen and ink as well as composition and color mixing.

“I am just thrilled to be able to help the Sustainability Committee any way I can and honor our citizens who are committed to making Greenwich a better place to live,” she said.

If you would like to see more of Sandy’s work you can follow her on Instagram at @sandra_harris_art.