Vera Luís was born in 1969. In 1987 she left Portugal for the U.S.S.R. to take a Preparatory Course at Surikov, Moscow State Institute of the Arts, where she studied drawing, painting and learned the Russian language. After that she continued her studies at the Faculty of Monumental-Decorative and Applied Art of the Moscow School of Industrial and Applied Art (former Stroganov). She returned home in 1993 with a five-year degree in Graphic Design.

She has been working as a graphic designer and tries to stretch her free time to do what she really loves: scientific illustration, drawing and painting — not necessarily in that order.

During a two-year break from design, in 2002 she took a Scientific Illustration course taught by the scientific illustrator Pedro Salgado, at Ar.co. She also took the course ‘Introduction to Drawing’ at Sociedade Nacional de Belas-Artes (National Society of Fine Arts), in Lisbon.

In 2004 she served as an apprenticeship on Archaeological Illustration at the City Museum, Lisbon.

She lives in Lisbon. Mimi is now 3 years old. After a long and eventful life, Xico died on the 3rd of March 2004.

Most recent works

Scientific Illustration
Vitis vinifera, L. botanical plate – Illustration for the book ‘O Vinho e a Vinha em Portugal’ published in 2006 by Syngenta / Verbo Publishing House.

Illustration of archaeological objects.
Client: Associação Cultural Desportiva e Recreativa de Freixo de Numão (Foz Côa).

Botanical illustration for a natural product package.
Client: Purple - Agência de Design, Lda.

Painting
Exhibition at Escudero Art Gallery, entitled Variations on Christina Rossetti’s The Goblin Market, 2–28 March 2006.