Clever With Nature (10 Photos)

July 12, 2026

By Vidar

The cleverest choice was knowing where to stop.

Each artist builds around something already present—a weed, a slope, a flowering tree, or the waterline—so the setting becomes part of the work rather than scenery around it.

More: When Street Art Meets Nature

🌱 Sibling Pep Talk — By David Zinn in Michigan, USA 🇺🇸

David Zinn titled this piece “Sibling Pep Talk.” His official biography explains that his temporary street drawings are improvised on location using chalk, charcoal, and found objects, making the flowering weed part of the finished work.

💡 Nerd Fact: Before sidewalk chalk made him internationally known, Zinn spent more than 20 years freelancing; his official biography lists landfill murals and hand-painted dump trucks among his commissions.

More: Street Art by Happiness Maker David Zinn

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🌿 “UMI” — By Daniel Popper at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois, USA 🇺🇸

This photograph shows “UMI” in the Magnolia Collection during The Morton Arboretum’s Human+Nature exhibition. Popper’s studio describes the sculpture as “a woman, a tree, a womb, and a bower.” Its name comes from the Arabic word for “mother”; it is now permanently installed at Hogan Park at Highlands Creek in Aurora, Colorado.

💡 Nerd Fact: Popper’s studio records “UMI” at 21 feet tall and lists steel, fibre-glass-reinforced concrete, fiberglass, wood, and natural fibers in its construction.

More: “UMI” at The Morton Arboretum

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🌺 Untitled Bougainvillea Portrait of Egypt Sarai — By Fábio Gomes Trindade in Trindade, Brazil 🇧🇷

In his original post, Fábio locates this mural on Rua 6 in Conjunto Arco-Íris, Trindade, Goiás. Jornal Opção reports that the portrait was inspired by young model Egypt Sarai and uses a lilac bougainvillea as her hair.

💡 Nerd Fact: Bougainvillea’s colorful “petals” are actually modified leaves called bracts; Gardens by the Bay explains that the plant’s true flowers are the small white or cream-colored structures tucked inside them.

More: Nature Meets Art in Brazilian Masterpieces

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🏛️ Please Do Not Touch — By Michael Pederson in Sydney, Australia 🇦🇺

Pederson includes this installation in his official Plants portfolio. His biography describes his Sydney-based practice as small installations left in unexpected locations; here, a miniature museum display turns a dandelion into the exhibit.

💡 Nerd Fact: Pederson says he began experimenting with street art around 2013 after becoming disillusioned with painting; the element of surprise in public space kept him making urban interventions.

More: Clever Art By Michael Pederson

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🐦 Untitled Bird Mural — By WD (Wild Drawing) in Athens, Greece 🇬🇷

A 2014 visual archive lists the work simply as “Bird” and credits it to WD in Athens; an artist-given title and exact address could not be verified. The living vegetation forms part of the composition and changes as it grows.

💡 Nerd Fact: In an interview, WD explained that his initials do double duty: they stand for “Wild Drawing”—a name inspired by drawings growing in the “jungle” of city buildings—and are also the initials of his real name.

More: Street Art by Wild Drawing in Athens, Greece

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😴 La Dormeuse (2016 Version) — By Made in Graffiti in Mers-les-Bains, France 🇫🇷

When this child-and-teddy mural appeared in 2016, it was unsigned and the artist had not been publicly identified. Painted on a Second World War blockhouse below Notre-Dame-de-la-Falaise in Mers-les-Bains, it became known as La Dormeuse. Later local reporting identifies Johann Grenier, known as Made in Graffiti, as the artist; after the image faded, he returned in 2024 and replaced it with an adult sleeper.

Photo by Marko “76”.

💡 Nerd Fact: Grenier’s graffiti education began on two wheels: after a tag at his school sparked his interest, he cycled along railway lines photographing tags or copying them into a notebook.

More: “La Dormeuse” in Mers-les-Bains, France

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🌾 “L’aisselle / The Armpit” — By Sandrine Estrade Boulet

The artist’s own portfolio lists the work as L’aisselle / The Armpit. A tuft of grass at the seam between wall and pavement becomes the figure’s underarm hair—the small urban detail that makes the joke work.

💡 Nerd Fact: Boulet calls herself a “hallucinartist.” Her official biography roots the practice in pareidolia—recognizing familiar forms in the surrounding environment—and describes a mix of photography, illustration, digital art, and in-situ work.

More: Waterworld — Street Art by Sandrine Boulet

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🐢 Sea Turtle — By Hannah Bullen-Ryner

In her original post, Bullen-Ryner says this small sea turtle took around five hours to make. She included a found fragment of an old glass bottle among the natural materials. Her official website explains that her ground arrangements use no permanent fixings, leaving them to change and disappear outdoors.

💡 Nerd Fact: In sea turtles, nest temperature determines hatchling sex: cooler sand produces males, while warmer sand produces females.

More: Nature Is Everything! 18 Stunning Artworks by Hannah Bullen-Ryner

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🌇 “Shauquethqueat’s Eutrochium” — By Mona Caron in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA 🇺🇸

For this 2021 Jersey City Mural Arts Program commission, Caron painted Joe Pye weed, a wildflower native to the area. She explains that Shauquethqueat was the recorded Mohican name of the nineteenth-century healer remembered as Joe Pye. The mural stands on Cottage Street in Jersey City.

💡 Nerd Fact: The name Eutrochium comes from Greek words meaning “well” and “wheel-like”—a reference to the plant’s leaves growing in whorls.

More: Rewilding Urbanity With Botanical Mural

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⛵ Viking Ship at the Waterline — By JPS in Stavanger, Norway 🇳🇴

JPS’s original 2018 post identifies this as a micro-stencil made in Stavanger and tags it “Viking” and “ship.” The three swords visible in the background appear to place the work at Møllebukta on Hafrsfjord, beside Fritz Røed’s Sverd i fjell monument.

💡 Nerd Fact: The battle commemorated by Sverd i fjell is traditionally dated to 872, but historians have also placed it in the 880s or close to 900.

More: 40 Stunning Street Art By Creative Genius JPS

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