Forest Lore

Over the past twenty five years illustrator, painter and designer Ursula Xanthe Young has become known for her unique flowery urban fairytale illustrations. Graduate of Parsons School of Design (Illustration, BFA, New York 1996) Ursula exhibits frequently in the Bay Area and has sold paintings in New York, London, Singapore, Manila, Hong Kong and all across the U.S. She shows most frequently with Luna Rienne Gallery in San Francisco.

Ursula finds inspiration in the organic yet urban landscape of San Francisco and its surrounds; the crossed wires, Victorian buildings and fog-filled horizons, that are often backdrop to her brightly painted doe-eyed flower girls. She is also highly influenced by her travels to the far-flung reaches of the globe and the variety of colorful characters that she encounters - both real and imagined - along the way.

Ursula's recent projects include a 18' commissioned painting for The Grand Hyatt in San Francisco as a part of a new art collection and a 75' mural on Market street in downtown San Francisco. Other clients include: NorthFace, SF Weekly, Google, Om Records and SF Bay Guardian. Ursula is also the creative director of Few & Far Women: an international all-female collective of mural-painters who create large collaborative wall murals around the U.S and beyond. For the last 10 years Ursula has been the art director for The Sunset Campout: a renowned dance music festival that happens every summer in Northern California with a dedicated following.

Originating from the green rural dales of North Yorkshire in the North of England, Ursula has spent much of her time since then traveling and has studied art in New York City, Florence, Vermont, Oslo, and London. After ten years making her mark in the Lower Haight neighborhood of San Francisco, she now lives in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Northern California - this time in a remote spot in the forest - where she’s busy finding a whole host of new inspirations.

She lives with her husband, daughter and three cats near Grass Valley, California.