Hazel Buys
Galleries
Once upon a time long ago but not too far away, I sat on the fence of a goat pen.
And began to draw.
Goats, rabbits, cows. The grasses they ate, pinecones, acorns, and other seeds. Trees, plants, flowers, leaves…
With side trips into portraiture, landscape, figure, and architecture.
Now I concentrate on botanical art and illustration. The combination of science (botany) and art fascinates me.
As Alan Alda observed, “Art and science are long-lost lovers, yearning to be reunited.”
The style that unifies my collections is classical realism.
(click to enlarge)
Graphite
Watercolor
Silver
point
My Writing
"Begin somewhere" - Danna Faulds
I began writing before I was a teenager, in diaries, journals, trying out poetry forms and making up small stories, a sentence here, a paragraph there. Sometimes I drew pictures to go along with the words.
Writing nonstop (mostly), I learned how to make a story work by attending classes, workshops, and conferences.
Now, as E. M. St. Denis, I write middle grade mysteries. The first in a series, DropZone, was published in February 2026. It is an Amazon and Barnes & Noble Best Seller and earned a five-star review from The Book Review.
Buy it here: www.stdenis-books.com
Review
"What ultimately distinguishes Drop Zone is its commitment to the ordinary as a site of meaning. St. Denis does not rely on extraordinary events to sustain interest. Instead, she attends to the textures of daily life, the rhythm of chores, the smell of soil, the quiet routines that structure time. In doing so, the novel aligns itself with a tradition in middle grades literature that values emotional authenticity over spectacle. Its kinship with writers such as DiCamillo, Turnage, Stead, and Applegate clarifies its ambitions, but it does not replicate their models. Rather, it synthesizes elements of each into a narrative that is distinctly its own—quieter in tone, more tentative in its resolutions, and deeply attentive to the experience of growing up within uncertainty."
About Hazel
When I was a child, I started drawing horses (such a cliché) and writing stories (short, about kittens) and found I wanted to really learn to draw and paint, and to make better stories. Then I grew up and got serious.
As happens in life.
But writing and drawing kept nibbling at me, and year after year one thing led to another, and now I draw and paint in graphite, watercolor, and metal point. I also write short stories, novels and haiku.
Thought for the day…
“If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough.” - Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
