Mr and Mrs Ekblom met at the Academy of Art in Stockholm, and became engaged in 1895. By that time they both combined their studies at the Academy with jobs on the side for Veit Wittrock, the Professor Bergianus of the Bergius Botanic Garden. Wittrock had a constant need for illustrations (watercolours) of the varieties of the species he investigated. This meant large quantities of exceptionally detailed depictions of wild pansies, spruce cones, apples, twinflowers and columbines by Axel and Thérèse. Axel Ekblom also made paintings of the plants nominated as province flowers, a project which Wittrock engaged in.
Professor Wittrock was a hard worker, and he expected his staff to keep up the same pace. This also applied to the artists, and the Ekbloms spent many, long summer days in the Bergius Botanic Garden in the company of paintboxes and herbs. But the earnings were good – a watercolour could fetch 4.50 kronor (€ 0.5) and this was a welcome contribution to their finances. On ordinary days they worked with the production of illustrations for Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet, The Swedish Museum of Natural History.
The couple had five children, three girls and two boys. The names of their daughters testify to their passion for flower painting. The eldest daughter was christened Viola, the second youngest, Karin Linnea, and to their youngest daughter, Thérèse and Axel wanted to give the name Akleja (Columbine). But the priest refused, so instead she received the flower-sounding name of Torborg Flora.
One reason for such a large treasure of watercolours from the hands of Axel and Thérèse was, as would later be seen, an erroneous hypothesis on the part of Wittrock. He was fascinated by the enormous abundance of variation displayed by, for example, the wild pansy, and he thought that this would lead to the emergence of new species. Obviously he wanted to depict these variations in order to use them in his argumentation, something which provided the Ekbloms with heaps of work. Later it became evident that the hypothesis he put forward was erroneous, although the watercolours are still as beautiful and fascinating to the observer. Today the thousands of watercolours painted by the couple for Wittrock are part of the historical collections belonging to the Bergius Foundation.