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Archive for the ‘botanical illustration’ Category

Draw Plants Outdoors, Hike & Have Fun This Summer

Posted in botanical art, botanical illustration, Education, general botany, Learning Opportunities, natural science illustration, Sketching & Journaling, tagged , , , , , on May 21, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

Now at Classes Near You > New York!


Gretchen Kai Halpert
www.gretchenhalpert.com
Gretchen Halpert is a scientific illustrator and biologist with many years of experience creating illustrations for the medical field, for scientific research, and for commercial clients. Gretchen also teaches classes in the book arts and leads journaling classes.

    Botanical Illustration and Drawing Workshops
    Choose one of the dates below or register for all four workshops!

    June 1, 2013
    June 2, 2013
    June 29, 2013
    June 30, 2013

    Botanical illustration and basic drawing. Each session above is a full-day workshop using botanical specimens to learn basic drawing techniques. Students will focus on tools and techniques to create realistic and accurate drawings along with observation exercises and botanical study. The first session will focus on graphite sketches, transfers and tonal drawings on white paper. Individual attention and small class size allows participants to receive help with their particular challenges and interests. This workshop is an opportunity for beginners to get your feet wet. As interest dictates, classes can meet during the week – days or evenings – as well as weekends. More advanced students may benefit by having a set time to draw with others and will be given more advanced exercises.

    Each workshop is scheduled for 10 AM – 4 PM. From 4:00-6:00 PM, students may remain to draw outdoors, hike or socialize. There are trails, fields, woods, a pond and plants specific to each ecosystem. Cost: $100. Location: Elmira, New York.

    (Note: Students may sign-up for multiple sessions, the exercises will be different each time so the workshops may progress as in a series.)

    Contact: Gretchen by email or at 607-767-6936.


    Nature and Travel Journaling in Tuscany, Siena, Italy
    June 16-23, 2013
    $2475pp double; $2750 single

    Includes 7 nights lodging in 16th-century villa, 19 meals, wine, field trips, daily classes and evening presentations. This workshop is about creating a journal, focusing on plants and nature and expanding to architecture and travel. Daily lessons in pen and ink, watercolor, composition, text, observation, and writing give participants the tools to document their time in Italy and wherever they go in the world, including home. All takes place on one of the first privately-owned wildlife sanctuaries in Italy. Flower and vegetable gardens, animals, trails and an abandoned castle offer plenty of subject material. Afternoons are set aside for field trips and working on your own, relaxing by the pool, hiking, reading, exploring and enjoying life. The weekends with a wine and cheese opening of our work.  

    For more information, go to Nature and Travel Journaling in Tuscany.

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Botanical Drawing for Teens & Adults at Brenton Arboretum

Posted in botanical art, botanical illustration, Drawing in Graphite, Drawing to Learn, Education, Learning Opportunities, Sketching & Journaling, tagged , , , , , on May 21, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

Here’s the latest at Classes Near You > Iowa.

Sign-up today. This class begins in less than 2 weeks!


Brenton Arboretum, Dallas Center
www.thebrentonarboretum.org
The Brenton Arboretum is a 140-acre arboretum established in 1997 featuring 2,600 trees and shrubs. Most of the more than 175 species of trees and shrubs are organized by species to ease learning and to emphasize the importance of trees in our world. Plant classes for children and adults are offered year ’round.

    Botanical Drawing
    Saturday, June 1, 2013
    10 AM – Noon

    Instructor Teena Case will teach participants how she creates her botanical illustrations. Participants will learn how to begin a botanical drawing and will receive individual attention. Teena is an art instructor specializing in biological illustration and watercolor.

    Cost: $30 members, $40 nonmembers
    (includes graphite pencil set and sketchbook)

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Create a Mixed-Media Sketchbook for Summer

Posted in botanical art, botanical illustration, Education, gardening, Learning Opportunities, nature, san diego, Sketching & Journaling, travel, tagged , , , , on May 21, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

Regardless of where you live, you can learn how to create an expressive journal for summer with mixed-media artist, Jane LaFazio.

See what’s new at Classes Near You > Southern California:


Jane LaFazio
janeville.blogspot.com
Jane is a mixed media artist and a member of the San Diego Sketchcrawl group. Jane teaches at conferences across the U.S. and leads classes in Italy and Greece too. In addition to sketching classes, Jane teaches workshops in collage, mixed media, and quilting. There are always many, many opportunities to learn from Jane in-person. Below is a short list of classes that may be of interest to you. To view all of Jane’s upcoming classes, see her teaching schedule online.

Also see this interview with Jane and her Ask The Artist Q&A with readers.


Sketching & Watercolor: Journal Style
Six-week online class.
Learn how to record your life, your summer vacation and other adventures using a loose and quick style of journaling. Participants in this online class will learn a new technique or subject each week and will receive links to supporting material. Communicate with fellow participants and see each others’ projects progress. Designed for beginners. Cost: $85. Online classroom open June 16.
View Details/Register.


Sketching and Watercolor in a Mixed Media Journal
Six-week online class.
Learn to draw from life using Jane’s quick approach to drawing. Take your art journaling to a whole new level! Cost: $90. Online classroom open June 16.
View Details/Register


Learn from Jane In-person:

  • Lavender Sage Art Retreat with Pamela Underwood – June 10-14, 2013. Mixed media retreat in Taos, New Mexico. View Details/Register
  • Walking and Watercolor in Italy – October 7-13, 2013
  • ArtWalk: San Diego – January 13-19, 2014
  • ArtWalk: Italy – May 24-30, 2014
  • ArtWalk: The French Riviera – June 1-7, 2014

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A Personal Look at the Life of Botanical Artist Rory McEwen

Posted in botanical art, botanical illustration, Education, Learning Opportunities, Special Announcements, Special Articles & Interviews, Special Events, tagged , , , , , , on May 17, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

US Release - August 6, 2013

US Release – August 6, 2013. Notify Me

After reading Music Hiding in the Air, I was speechless. 

I knew of Rory McEwen and his work before reading the memoir written by his niece Christian McEwen. However Rory was simply a name on the timeline of botanical art history I try to organize in my head; his paintings, work to admire and study in books such as Wilfrid Blunt’s The Art of Botanical Illustration: An Illustrated History.

When I put the book down, I couldn’t think beyond what I had just read. I realized I was no longer looking at a timeline with Rory McEwen’s name on it. I stopped being an outside observer because Christian brought me into the timeline of her uncle’s life and allowed me to experience some of it with her.

Christian McEwen’s recollection of her relationship with her uncle is extremely moving and we are fortunate she has chosen to share this relationship with us.

Christian writes about her uncle’s privileged upbringing, his love of music and art, and his hunger for solitude and world travel. She shares personal letters and writes about the impression Rory McEwen made upon her life before his death in 1982 at the age of 50.

Music Hiding in the Air is not a new book. It appeared online ten years ago on a website called Archipelago. It was transformed into book form by Bauhan Publishing because of the exhibition Rory McEwen, The Colours of Reality now at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (May 11 – September 22, 2013). Christian wrote her memoir in the late 1990s while living in the United States. She says she wrote the memoir because at the time she “was hungry for my people and Scotland. Writing about Rory enabled me to connect with Scotland.” 

Christian wrote about her uncle to ground herself in her own family story. When she wrote her book, Rory McEwen was an unknown artist partly because he sold his work to private collections. People eventually began to learn about him, however, and Dr. Shirley Sherwood was among those collecting Rory’s work. Now 15 years later, Rory McEwen is receiving recognition that is long overdue. Christian says Rory is “being resurrected” by the event at Kew.

Credited with revolutionizing botanical art, Rory painted images of plants with incredible detail. He painted on vellum and used a heart surgeon’s magnifying glass to look at flowers closely. Christian says that poet Alastair Reid once told her Rory worked with a kind of pulley system that allowed him to hover his hand over the vellum so he wouldn’t smudge it.

How many hours did Rory spend in his studio? Christian isn’t sure. She remembers visiting his studio when she was a teenager, and says Rory could be a very solitary person, and also very gregarious. Somehow he managed to balance family time with long hours alone, painting.

When asked to identify who she would like to read her book, Christian replied:

Those in the immediate family who have been born or have grown up since Rory died.

Botanical artists at all levels of expertise.

The people of Scotland, who up till now may have known him only as a musician. They will rediscover him as a Renaissance man, a poet and an artist, a true cosmopolitan.

Fellow artists and admirers in the United States.

Christian went on to say that many people have connected with her book. Since publishing her memoir online, Christian says strangers have written to her saying they were moved by Rory’s story. His story – a human story – is a good story all by itself.

Whomever reads her book, Christian wants people to understand one thing about her uncle. She wants them to see he understood the true power of the Latin phrase, carpe diem (“seize the day”). She wants people to be inspired by Rory’s story, his art and “the power of life lived in the service of one’s art. Of one’s heart.”


About Christian McEwen
Christian McEwen is a writer, teacher and workshop leader. She came to the University of California at Berkeley on a Fulbright Scholarship, and has lived most of her adult life in the United States. She returns to Scotland to teach each summer. This year, she will be teaching on the Scottish Island of Tanera Mor with the textile artist, Jan Kilpatrick.

Later this year, Christian will teach The Art of Letter Writing: Voice, Calligraphy & Spirit with calligrapher, illustrator and author, Barbara Bash. This September workshop will be taught at Sky Lake Lodge in Rosendale, NY. Learn More

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Make Time for Creativity

Posted in botanical art, botanical illustration, Education, Learning Opportunities, tagged , , , , on May 17, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

Buy online and at ArtPlantae at Aurea Vista.

Buy online and at ArtPlantae at Aurea Vista.

It is one thing to research ways to connect botanical art with learning in the classroom and quite another to figure out how to make time to apply the wonderful ideas you’ve learned. Between work, family, volunteering and other responsibilities, how do you find time in your schedule to read a book, much less time to draw, paint and engage in other creative activities?

If something inside your body has been telling you to slow down and if you know you’ve been silencing your creativity and ignoring the call of your Creative Self, then now is the time to read World Enough & Time: On Creativity and Slowing Down by Christian McEwen.

When Christian talks about slowing down, she doesn’t mean simply removing one or two items from your list of To Do items. What she means is to slow down by physically moving more slowly. By walking instead of running. By writing with pencil and paper instead of typing. By doing whatever it takes to stop subjecting your body to “hurry sickness” (McEwen, 2011).

Christian encourages the tired and the overwhelmed to make time to converse with people in person. To figure out how to do nothing. To spend time with a child. To go for a walk. To learn how to look. Read a book. Keep a journal. Stop multitasking. Take a break. Dream. Learn to listen. Be grateful.

While all of this sounds simple enough to do, there is a reason why these simple acts are the focus of a 367-page book. Our culture has either forgotten how to do them or they have been deemed too time-intensive and impractical for daily life. Yes, a bit of planning and motivation might be necessary to engage in some of these activities, but not much. In World Enough & Time, Christian explains why these activities are important, shares with you interesting history, research and stories, and provides you with tactics to make the changes to your busy life that you probably already know are way overdue.

Value “slowness”. Create an “affluence of time” (McEwen, 2011).

Add World Enough & Time: On Creativity & Slowing Down to your summer reading list.


Literature Cited
McEwen, Christian. 2011. World Enough & Time: On Creativity and Slowing Down. Peterborough: Bauhan Publishing.


Related Topic

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New Book About Marianne North

Posted in botanical art, botanical art books, botanical illustration, Drawing, Education, general botany, Learning Opportunities, Special Articles & Interviews, Special Events, tagged , , , , on May 15, 2013 |

I hope you are enjoying the conversation with Katie Zimmerman. I asked Katie if she was going to write a book based on her years of research.

She replied:

I’m in the final stages of writing up my dissertation, and all along I’ve been writing with the book in mind. There are a few books out there already, but they have all treated North as an anomaly in the “intrepid spinster” vein. I don’t want to downplay North’s extraordinary achievements and personality, but to really understand her work and its value beyond its eccentricity, we need a more complete narrative. North’s individualized vision and visualizations, however idiosyncratic, were…

Read More

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‘From the Mountains to the Sea’ Begins Year-long Tour

Posted in botanical art, botanical illustration, Education, Learning Opportunities, Special Announcements, Special Events, travel, tagged , , on May 15, 2013 | 2 Comments »

exhibitPostcard_NESBA_2013
From the Mountains to the Sea: Plants, Trees and Shrubs of New England

The first exhibition of the New England Society of Botanical Artists (NESBA) opens on Sunday, May 19, at The Art Complex Museum in Duxbury, MA, the first stop on its six-venue journey around New England. The exhibition will feature 60 portraits of native New England plants. Each venue will also feature the drawings and paintings by NESBA members in that state.

The touring schedule for From the Mountains to the Sea includes:

Learn more about the New England Society of Botanical Artists on their website. Follow them on Twitter (@NESBAArtists), Like them on Facebook.

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Observable Trends in the Work of Victorian Artist Marianne North

Posted in botanical art, botanical illustration, Education, general botany, Learning Opportunities, natural science illustration, Special Articles & Interviews, travel, tagged , , , , , on May 13, 2013 |

When viewing North’s paintings, are there any trends that can be observed? For example, did she paint plant “portraits” more often than landscapes? Did her style of painting change during 14 years of traveling? Etc.

I would say North’s motivations for traveling and painting changed more than her style ever did. Her choice of specimens, indeed her choice of destination, became much more pointed towards the end of her career and especially after Sir Joseph accepted North’s offer to build a gallery at Kew. Once North knew her work would be on permanent display…

Continue…

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Paint Summer Flowers on Vellum at Chicago Botanic Garden

Posted in botanical art, botanical illustration, Education, Learning Opportunities, Watercolor, tagged , , , , , , on May 13, 2013 | 2 Comments »

classes_CarolWoodin Carol Woodin
www.carolwoodin.com
A freelance artist for over 20 years, Carol creates vibrant botanical paintings on vellum. Her work is in public collections and in the private collections of Dr. Shirley Sherwood and Alisa and Isaac M. Sutton. Carol is represented by Susan Frei Nathan Fine Works on Paper, LLC.

    Slipper Orchids in Watercolor (on paper or vellum)
    GNSI Education Series Workshop at Reiman Gardens
    University of Iowa, Ames IA
    May 31 – June 3, 2013
    This four-day class includes a field trip and a lot of time in the classroom observing and painting potted native orchids. Cost: $510 GNSI Members, $545 nonmembers.

    Applications due May 15. Samples of artwork must accompany application. For more information and to register, visit GNSI’s website.


    Painting the Flowers of Summer, Watercolor on Vellum
    Chicago Botanic Garden, Chicago, IL
    July 26 – July 28, 2013
    9:30 AM – 4:30 PM
    This class includes a demonstration of stretching vellum. Participants will select subjects from the garden and learn how to take a preliminary sketch to an advanced painting on vellum. Cost: $449 nonmember; members receive 20% discount. View Details/Register


    Botanical Painting with Watercolor
    Berkshire Botanical Garden, Stockbridge, MA
    August 22 – 24, 2013
    10 AM – 4 PM
    Come to the beautiful Berkshires of Massachusetts to take a 3-day Master Class and learn botanical painting techniques. Anemones will be the focus of this class. Cost: $290 nonmembers, $260 members.
    View Details/Register

This information has been added to the Classes Near You section for Massachusetts and Illinois.

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Marianne North Chose Oil Over Watercolor

Posted in botanical art, botanical illustration, Education, general botany, Learning Opportunities, sketchbook, Special Events, travel, tagged , , , , on May 10, 2013 |

When reading about artists traveling on European expeditions, we learn that artists worked in watercolor. Marianne North worked in oil. Does North ever explain why she chose oil over watercolor or other color media?

Yes, she does – and the answer is really interesting in terms of getting a handle on North’s motivations for painting and her self-image as an artist. North took watercolor lessons as a young woman, but once she tried oil painting she found it to be “a vice like dram-drinking, almost impossible to leave off once it gets possession of one.” Besides enjoying the feel and effects of oil colors, it is important to note that North was not a botanical illustrator. If we examine North’s oil sketches within this tradition, the only conclusion that can be, and has too often been made, is that she was bad at her work. This isn’t helpful for reconstructing what it was she was doing. North’s project is more closely aligned with the kind of work being done by the Hudson River School painters in North America, who traveled throughout the United States, the Arctic, Jamaica, and South and Central America with the goal of painting the beauty, unity, and character of nature – and who did so in oils. For North, it wasn’t interesting to paint an uprooted, idealized type-specimen against a white background as per botanical illustration. Instead, she treated the plants and botanical landscapes she encountered as individuals and groups of individuals met with in distinctive settings, all of which she wanted to portray with the vibrancy and materiality of the original encounter, a task best done with oils.

Catch up with our conversation with Katie Zimmerman

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Drawing Food as a Way to Notice Plants

Posted in botanical art, botanical illustration, Education, general botany, Learning Opportunities, sketchbook, Special Announcements, Special Events, tagged , , , , , , , on May 10, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

DrawingFood9781452111315 Here is a new resource that takes a fun and lighthearted approach to drawing. This resource provides more than prompts to remind you to draw everyday. It is a guided sketchbook complete with drawing techniques, instructions about how to use different media and a guidebook with plenty of room for sketching.

Drawing Food: A Journal by illustrator Claudia Pearson is composed of two key sections. The first section is titled, How to Draw Food, and contains instruction about how to draw fruit and vegetables, how to draw meat and dairy products, how to draw treats from the bakery, and how to draw household kitchen items. In this section, Pearson discusses line drawing, shading, how to work with colored pencils, and how to work with color pastels. Her instructions are clear, simple and doable.

In Part Two of her book, Pearson establishes a two-page spread for each week of the year and provides fun prompts for sketching enthusiasts. She challenges readers with thought-provoking tasks such as drawing what they find at their local farmer’s market, drawing something seasonal that isn’t produce, and challenges them to describe other culinary subjects in a visual way.

If the word “draw” makes you nervous, this book will help you begin to see your world through the eyes of an illustrator. It isn’t focused narrowly on any one culinary topic and provides plenty of room for you to take the journal in any direction you want to take it.

Interested in beginning your own illustrated food journal and discovering how plants intersect with our lives?

Join ArtPlantae next week when it launches the Botany Craft Bar, a creative place to learn about plants, during the Spring Open House at Aurea Vista on
Friday, May 17 (5-9 PM). In June, the Botany Craft Bar will become a regular feature during Riverside ArtsWalk, a monthly celebration of the arts in downtown Riverside.

If you can’t make it to the open house next week, visit ArtPlantae’s Botany Craft Bar on the first Thursday of the month during ArtsWalk. The Botany Bar will be open from 6:00 – 8:30 PM at Aurea Vista.

This monthly gathering is a CRE8TIME event and is community, fun and education all rolled into one!

cre8time_ProudToSupport_image

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How did Marianne North paint 832 paintings in 14 years?

Posted in ArtPlantae Books, botanical art, botanical illustration, Education, History, Learning Opportunities, natural science illustration, Special Announcements, Special Events, travel, tagged , , , , , on May 8, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

In my review of Marianne North: A Very Intrepid Painter by Michelle Payne, I ramble though calculations as I think aloud as to how Marianne North could have completed 832 paintings in 14 years. What have you discovered about how she worked that would make such an impressive accomplishment possible?

It is impressive! Calculated out it’s something like one painting every six days for fourteen years! And when we consider that the majority of this work was done on-the-spot in distant locales, the achievement becomes even more impressive. There are a few factors that made North’s project as prodigious as it was: first, and a great lesson to all, was the possession of an extraordinary work ethic. North woke early and worked through all kinds of weather, sometimes for up to twelve hours a day. She also famously preferred plants to people, and was often able to carve extra time to work by excusing herself from the many social obligations central to colonial and ex-pat community life in the places she visited. In Sarawak, for example…

Read More

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