Married Artist Couple Creates Verdant Plants That Appear Real Enough to Touch

In our day-to-day lives, we don’t often get a chance to take in the beauty of nature. However, by taking a look at one of Jelena and Aleksandar Paunković’s paintings, you will quickly feel immersed in the beautiful leaves of a forest floor. The married couple—who are known professionally under the name JA Paunković—work together as an artist duo, finding inspiration in their natural surroundings in Serbia.

Jelena and Aleksandar studied together at the Faculty of Arts in Belgrade, where they both received an MA in Applied Arts. Afterward, the couple moved to the mountain Kosmaj to be closer to the wilderness and opened a studio. Their photorealistic oil paintings are based on the plants they find during their outdoor excursions. “Connecting with nature is an important part of our personality [as artists],” Jelena and Aleksandar explain to us.

“Each mountain hike and each visit to a new area creates material that will later serve us in the studio as a sketch for a new painting,” the couple said. “We’ve discovered a way to bring nature inside a home or gallery and place it on the wall as a reminder that we need to think more about how our contemporary lifestyle impacts the environment.” Jelena and Aleksandar have incorporated sustainable and environmentally friendly habits into their lifestyle, such as utilizing reusable bags, starting a garden, and composting leftover food, in addition to making a variety of gorgeous representations of forest floors.

Jelena and Aleksandar Paunkovi, a married artist couple, make stunning botanical paintings that look real enough to touch.