Lara Call Gastinger is an artist and botanical illustrator from Charlottesville, Virginia and was the chief illustrator of the Flora of Virginia, a botanical reference. She has an undergraduate degree in Biology from the University of Virginia and a master's degree in plant ecology from Virginia Tech. She has been awarded two gold medals (2007, 2018) at the Royal Horticultural Society Botanical Art shows in London and her work is in the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation at Carnegie Mellon. Her artwork appears in the Peterson's Field Guide to Mushrooms and American Society of Botanical Artists Botanical Art Techniques Handbook. She teaches online and in person and has travelled to Japan, Romania, and France to lead workshops. She is a lecturer in the University of Virginia Department of Landscape Architecture where she teaches a class about plant identification and drawing. Gastinger is renowned on Instagram for teaching her perpetual journal process.