My name is Charina Kilayko Claridad, creator and artist behind Flora & Fauna Prints.

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My profession in the creative field began in interior design. Prior to this and for as long as I can remember, I always had an interest in drawing, painting, and crafting.

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Watercolor was a recent endeavor I took up at the beginning of 2021. I was drawn to the medium because it felt both challenging and familiar. Although I had taken up rendering in watercolor briefly in interior design school, I never had any other formal training and relied mostly on online courses, self-study, and consistent practice. It was a self study journey that I persevered through in the late evenings -- after work hours during the pandemic, with a staggered a work week, and past the bedtime hours of my son, who was a year old then.

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Nature was my first and foremost source of inspiration, focusing on detailed subjects, specifically birds and botanicals. It continues to influence much of my work. However, more recently, my interest has grown more on looser landscape and cityscape painting, a personally more challenging genre that I am still learning and hoping to gain more skill on. I hope to feature more of them in my work. 

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I am grateful for the online world that introduced me to the works of artists abroad who continue to inspire me such as British wildlife artist Sarah Stokes and Chilean naturalist illustrator Antonia Montealegre, whose works encouraged me to start this journey, and American watercolor artists such as Andy Evansen and Morten Solberg (oil, acrylic and watercolor). I am also thankful to my teacher Erwin Sabio, a Filipino watercolorist with years of experience, who taught me the value of letting go and trusting the process.

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Flora & Fauna Prints is the small business venture I decided to set up as my way of sharing and making my art more accessible through notecards and prints. At times, I wish I could have chosen a more unique name for this venture, but Flora & Fauna Prints ultimately felt straightforward and fitting.

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Thank you for being here. I hope my work inspires you.