Marcy Ellis packages a piece of her work, fulfilling orders from customers, Tucson, Ariz., July 24, 2026.
Tucson artist Marcy Ellis starts each morning with an exercise in gratitude, and each painting with an intention.
“I love ritual and routine, and incorporate that with everything that I do, even if it's not drawing,” Ellis said. “I always start the day with a journal every morning, and create a list of gratitude morning and night every day. I like to have my tea and coffee, and I write about the day, or what's going on, or what I'm grateful for, or just a lot to clear my mind, and then I smudge with Palo Santo.”
Ellis, who has been a full-time professional artist for seven years now, specializes in pen and ink and watercolor works merging femininity, womanhood and nature.
Marcy Ellis gets into the fine detail of a piece she’s creating ini watercolors, Tucson, Ariz., July 24, 2026.
From her drawings and paintings, Ellis creates fine art prints, stickers, notebooks, mugs, printed clothing, dish towels and even pillowcases, all with her signature feminine botanical themes.
“My work is inspired by the feminine form, plants and botanicals, and how they intertwine and are connected and mirror each other,” she said.
The plants and flowers Ellis chooses for each of her pieces are picked intentionally to represent the themes within the artwork, she said.
“I like to research the flowers and the botanicals and what those properties or what those healing modalities mean for that specific plant, and then I'll relate that to the figure I'm inspired by, or the drawing of the woman that I'm drawing and have those two intertwine,” Ellis said. “That's like my sketching.”
One of her most popular prints, “Desert Goddesses,” depicts four female figures, each with different desert plants in place of their heads and faces — one a prickly pear, one an agave, another an ocotillo and one a small cactus.
“I was inspired by four of my besties, including myself, and the resilience of desert plants,” Ellis said. “The prickly pear survives in this 100 degree weather, and it still blooms. So that type of resilience. And then you compare it to someone who maybe has been going through it, and they always continue to bloom.”
Ellis said she has always been an artist and that plants, nature and female empowerment have been lifelong inspirations for her, having grown up at a plant nursery in New Mexico.
“I've always been really self-motivated to create work and sell it, and very creative and always making art and drawing,” she said. “And I was with my mom and my sister all the time when we were little, and soI was very inspired by the strong feminine energy.”
Nowadays, her inspiration comes from the beautiful Sonoran Desert she is surrounded by.
“I can walk in my neighborhood for hours, letting all my thoughts go away,” she said. “And I'm always inspired by groups of women or my friends or just those powerful feminine influences that are around.”
For Ellis, the artistic process is all about grounding, finding peace and clarity and connecting with nature. Even some of the materials she uses are derived from plants and other natural materials.
“I make some inks- botanical inks- to paint with, like turmeric ink. My favorite one is butterfly pea flower ink,” Ellis said. “I work a lot with wine and coffee to get toned colors, and the botanical inks kind of age the paint to look more vintage inspired, and that's more of my aesthetic. Very homey, earthy, saturated colors.”
Marcy Ellis paints in watercolors on a piece in her studio, Tucson, Ariz., July 24, 2026.
Her paintings often include muted pink shades, and pink happens to be Ellis’ favorite color. Her tidy workspace in the bright converted garage of a shared wellness practice is splashed with cheerful bubblegum pink and soft rose tones.
Between Monday shifts at Pop Cycle, studio days spent packing orders and making time to create new works, Ellis returns to her roots as a former elementary school art teacher and hosts botanical watercolor and drawing workshops twice a month or so.
“I missed being in the classroom, but didn't miss all of the things that come with it, so I started teaching to adults, and I teach them how to draw flowers, and we work through the process,” she said.
Marcy Ellis looks for items in the inventory in her studio workspace while assembling orders of her art to be shipped to buyers, Tucson, Ariz., July 24, 2026.
For her workshops, Ellis pours some of her natural paints and pigments into vintage tea sets on glass trays to show her students that it’s possible to make colors at home with stuff from the refrigerator or pantry.
“It's just a really inspiring, amazing time. They're usually about two and a half hours, and I've had all sorts of people from the community, and people bringing their partners or husbands, which I love,” she said. “It's so fulfilling to to watch, you know, someone who was very nervous to learn how to paint a flower, and they did it, and watching them like succeed and believe in themselves."
In addition to her own work and business, Ellis also co-owns Bun Bun Vending with her friend Teryn Thress. So far, the decorated vending machines filled with exciting mystery goods and products from local businesses can be found at Tap & Bottle North, Crooked Tooth Brewing and Tucson Hop Shop, with a fourth now planned for the Tucson Museum of Art.
“We're really excited to share that with a whole new crowd- a very art minded crowd of museum goers, and to give an accessible way to purchase local artwork from a museum,” Ellis said. “Im going to start painting that probably in next couple weeks, and we're trying to install it at the end of August.”
The new vending machine will be a permanent version of their summer “Smol Worx” show.
“We received some fabulous, super supportive, exciting responses, and it's been fun to see people sharing them in little frames, or let's say we had a big monsoon- that next day, all of those monsoon-inspired pieces are the ones that are selling,” Ellis said. “So we're going to take our ‘smol worx’ model, where we have 30 local artists creating a small piece of art, five-by-five pieces, inspired by a theme, and we'll have that model at the TMA. So you can go to any of our Bun Buns, and you might see different products, local products, but you'll find artwork at the Tucson Museum of Art Bun Bun.”
To keep the selection fun and new, every so often Ellis and Thress will rotate different artists and different themes. The initial launch will feature items celebrating Tucson summers.
“We're really excited to partner with the TMA, and they were super enthusiastic,” Ellis said. “It's really a full circle, magical moment.”
