Natural Dyes Merge with Mixed Media in Annalise Neil’s Dreamy Cyanotypes
“Matter is memory, and memory is a medium,” says artist , whose brim with animals, fungi, geological specimens, shells, and more that she augments with watercolor. Recently, the artist has been adding rich, earthy tones with natural dyes such as wild strawberry leaf, oak gall, loquat leaf, and chestnut. She has used botanical teas to shift the natural blue color of the cyanotypes for quite a while, but the sepia tonality has emerged as a larger focus lately, which allows her to layer hues like browns and purples.
Neil’s experiences in nature profoundly influence her individual pieces in a process that she poetically describes as “melting, rolling, pinching, sanding, walking across meadows, cheek on sun-warmed boulders.” This year, she’s a resident artist at in Julian, California, which merges artistic and scientific inquiry. “I endeavor to create work that will lead to contemplation and reflection and that invites a thoughtful examination of our relationship to reality and our surroundings,” she says.
“Littoral Talisman” (2026), watercolor and cyanotype toned with madder root, chestnut tannins and strawberry leaf tea on Canson Montval paper, hand-carved wood panel, gouache, volcano keyhole limpet shell, copper, 28 x 18 x 1.75 inches
“For my site-specific work, I begin by hiking for many days and photographing intriguing things I find, including birds and mammals, plants, geological forms, and insects,” she says. “As I photograph specimens in wild and cultivated spaces, I capture a brief version of their existence that I transmute into a negative and then into a cyanotype.” The images are then supported on hand-carved wooden panels.
Neil’s work is currently on view in Fast Forward: Analog Photography as a Third Space at the and Sanguine Glimmers at in San Diego, among others. See more and follow updates on the artist’s .
“Intervals” (2023), watercolor and cyanotype on Awagami Mitsumata paper mounted to acrylic-painted wood panel, 10 x 8 x 1.5 inches“Auguries” (2025), cyanotype and chestnut tannins on Hahnemuhle Sumi-e paper mounted to hand-carved wood panels, kiln-cast glass sculptures, flashe, bronze, 18 x 32 x 2 inchesFrom the ‘Idyllwild Reverie’ series (2025), cyanotype toned with strawberry leaf and chestnut, watercolor, and acrylic on wood panel, 12 x 24 x 1 inches“Loophole” (2024), bleached and toned cyanotype, watercolor, flashe, kiln-cast glass, handmade wood panel, bronze, 14.5 x 16 x 2 inches“Chaparral Coronet” (2026), cyanotype on Hahnemule Sumi-e paper toned with chestnut and strawberry leaf, watercolor, and shellac ink on hand-carved wood panel, 12 x 12 x 1.75 inches“Locus” (2024), kiln-cast glass, cuttlefish-cast bronze, toned cyanotype, watercolor, handmade wood panel, flashe, bronze wire, 14 x 10.5 x 1.5 inches“Harmony II” (2024), watercolor and toned cyanotype on cotton sateen mounted to wood panel, 30 x 24 x 1.5 inches“Gravity” (2024), bleached and traditional cyanotype, watercolor, kiln-cast glass, cuttlefish-cast bronze, handmade wood panel, flashe, 16 x 8 x 3.5 inches“Light Emergent”(2026), cyanotype on Hahnemule Sumi-e paper toned with strawberry leaf, watercolor, and pinyon pine pitch on hand-built and carved wood panel, 25 x 18 x 1 inches
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