Domke, Henry

Dr. Henry Domke is an artist who creates nature art for hospitals.

Henry took a non-traditional path to get where he is today. He enrolled in art school while he was still in high school, but never made it. To his parents' surprise, he decided at the last minute to pursue medicine. Dr. Domke worked as a family physician in Jefferson City, Missouri for 25 years.

By the mid-1990s, Dr. Domke’s enduring passion for art led him to formalize his art training. He studied independently with Annette Weintraub, an art professor at City College in New York, and William Hawk, a painting professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Hawk convinced him to enter the university's graduate art program, where Henry studied from 1998 to 2001 while temporarily reducing hours at his medical practice.

Another defining factor in Henry’s life is the 600-acre property that he has lived on since 1981. It is called the Prairie Garden Trust. It is a native plant restoration project begun by Henry’s parents in central Missouri. Much of his art is based on images from the Prairie Garden Trust. Dr Domke’s undergraduate work was in natural history, so he had training in botany and taxonomy. That information compliments the art that he does. Each plant Henry photographs is named by genus and species.

Recently Dr. Domke’s been expanding beyond his backyard to find inspiration; he has pictures from coast-to-coast. So in addition to local wildflowers and wildlife, Henry’s collection also includes coastal landscapes, mountainous terrains, desert scenes, and sea shells.

Today, Dr. Domke’s life is coming full circle; he said goodbye to medicine in 2007 and now pursues art and growing native plants full time. Today Henry tries to find beauty in the ordinary and create images that inspire and heal.

More of Henry’s work can be seen at Henry Domke Fine Art.

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