Mary Comber Miles

The Vancouver Orchid Festival is honoured to present Mary Comber Miles, Honorary Artist to VanDusen Botanical Garden in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Her talents may be seen in the cover illustrations and the inside pages of the Proceedings of the 16th World Orchid Conference that took place in Vancouver 1999.

Painting orchids is not new to her. She has made several visits over the years to her brother Jim Comber in both Java and Thailand. Collecting in the mountains on the weekends, she would have a limited time to paint her subjects before Jim pressed them for Kew Herbarium. His books Orchids of Java and Orchids of Sumatra feature photographs of some of these same specimens.

On her extensive travels to Europe, South America, South Africa and Australia she painted many wildflowers including orchids.

Education of the public in horticulture and botany as well as practical application of both has been the tradition of her family for four generations.

She gained her botanical and horticultural background from her meticulous and dedicated father Harold F. Comber A.L.S. and grandfather James Comber V.M.H.. Her mother taught her drawing and she completed her education at the Cambridge School of Art.

Over many years, Mary has given educational exhibits at VanDusen Botanical Garden, where she has featured many of the finest plants in horticulture for the pleasure and enlightenment of a wide public. She accompanies her paintings with notes on her subject. Recently, she has been giving classes in realistic botanical painting.