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Meet Erin Gleeson, an artist and the creator behind the artful lifestyle brand, The Forest Feast, which has expanded from an online photography portfolio to a hub for uniquely artistic cookbooks, creative retail products, and more.
When scrolling through The Forest Feast, visitors are met with the artistic manifestations of creator Erin Gleeson’s affinity for plants. Whether it is a recipe on ways to eat plants, homeware and clothing designs that center plants, or an ode to plants in watercolor, Gleeson’s childhood connection to nature can be seen in her work.
While being raised on an apple orchard in rural California by gardening parents, she spent plenty of time outside. “I found that really creatively inspiring,” Gleeson says. “Nature and plants and fruits and vegetables continue to be a really big inspiration, and I’m sure a lot of that came from childhood.”
I’m just trying to inspire people to gather, and I think it just makes everything more joyful and more fun when there’s a lot of color and pattern and vegetables involved.
– Erin Gleeson
Harnessing that inspiration into creativity, Gleeson studied art in college and photography in graduate school in New York. Centering food in her work as a photojournalist in New York, Gleeson worked alongside chefs, shooting for various publications while also teaching Photoshop at the Fashion Institute of Technology.
Her move from her childhood apple orchard left Gleeson to look for inspiration in unique places—it was no longer growing in her backyard. “It was different,” Gleeson said. “The connection for me creatively was more around food at restaurants and people.”
After years of city living, Gleeson’s husband got a job in California, prompting another big move and creative shift for her. “I was ready for a new creative project, but I didn’t quite know what it should be, so I started a blog,” she says. She began to pitch herself as a food photographer to cookbook editors, but they had a different idea.
“They liked my work more than they liked other people’s stuff, and after a while, people were like ‘You should just do your own cookbook,’” Gleeson says. “Even though I went to school for photography, I always loved watercolor illustration, and so for this Forest Feast project and for the blog, I started doing watercolors and overlaying them on photography to create these recipe illustrations.”
Since then, Gleeson has released five cookbooks filled with simple vegetarian recipes, watercolor illustrations, and artful photography, all made by her. On her website, she continues to share tips on cooking and hosting, as well as selling clothing and homeware that feature her own designs and photography.
With The Forest Feast, Gleeson hopes to bring friends and family together over plant-based meals through the art of hosting, which she believes can not only be a creative outlet, but also foster peace and community.
“Having people over is very impactful because you have insight into somebody else’s family and life and the kind of food they eat,” Gleeson says. “To be a host, you have to be vulnerable. You open up your home to whoever it is, and they can see the inside of where you live, but that vulnerability breaks down the walls of community and it makes people understand each other more.”
Today, she practices what she preaches, and she and her family host regularly. “I’m just trying to inspire people to gather, and I think it just makes everything more joyful and more fun when there’s a lot of color and pattern and vegetables involved.” You can find all of Erin Gleeson’s cookbooks on Amazon.
