Wendy Hollender of WH Art & Design will lead a two-week colored pencil workshop at the National Tropical Botanical Garden on the island of Kaua’i, August 10 – 24, 2009. Workshop participants will also have the opportunity to enroll in Natural History of the Hawaiian Islands, a fully accredited survey course of Hawaiian natural history offered through the University of Hawaii. Taught by Dr. David Burney, this class is suitable for advanced undergraduates, entering graduate students, and amateur naturalists. Lectures will be enhanced with examples from the instructor’s research, guest speakers, multimedia audiovisuals, and Saturday field trips. For more information about this survey course, click here.
Description of Botanical Illustration Course
Study the fundamentals of botanical drawing using the medium of colored pencils. No previous drawing experience is required. Drawing plants and flowers starts with observation. Under the supervision of botanical instructor Wendy Hollender, as well as Dr. David Burney and other NTBG botanists, students will learn about plant parts and their functions through dissection and comparison. Students will work in graphite and colored pencil to create detailed botanical drawings and sketchbook pages of flowering plants, fruits and seedpods. Subject matter will be drawn from the wide variety of tropical plants growing at NTBG. Students will also study botanical illustrations in the extensive library collection as a way of understanding the tradition and techniques still in use today.
Accommodations
Stay on the beautiful premises of the National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG). NTBG Field School programs offer a range of shared housing options, including the spacious Theobald House which sleeps 8, with wireless internet and cable television. For the more adventurous, there is the Weatherport, a vinyl yurt-like structure with wooden floor and electricity. Some people may prefer to camp in their own tent in the yard. Bathrooms and shower will be available for those who choose to camp. Accommodations on a first-come, first-served basis.
Alternatively, participants can stay elsewhere on the island of Kaua’i. Facilities at NTBG include a Conservation and Horticulture Center featuring a nursery containing over 20,000 plants, a new Botanical Research Center featuring the most extensive botanical library in the state, including books and prints dating back more than four centuries and a herbarium with over 60,000 pressed specimens. The living collections of NTBG include the spectacularly diverse McBryde Gardens, featuring the largest collection of native Hawaiian plants in existence and the world-class historical gardens of the adjacent Allerton Gardens.
Food
Three meals a day will be provided, Monday – Thursday. They will be buffet style and will be prepared on the premises. From Friday – Sunday there will be food for breakfast, but everyone is on their own with cooking. Workshop participants will organize group cooking for those staying on the premises for the weekend.
Details, fees, and photos are available at WH Art & Design
Meet Wendy Hollender
ArtPlantae Today 
Do you have any classes in June or July in the garden? I am looking for watercolor or field sketching of botanical subjects or other natural subjects.
We have contacted the National Tropical Botanical Garden on Kaua’i and have asked if they plan to host other watercolor/sketching classes this year. We have invited them to respond to your inquiry here in this comment section. If we hear from them in any other way, we’ll let you know. Thank you for your question.
The NTBG has let us know that additional watercolor/sketching classes have not been planned.
Aloha –
I work at NTBG and am, sadly, not able to attend this course —BUT – b/c i will be gone at that time, i need a housesitter for my garden and three cats — an opportunity to save a little on housing if you plan to take this course. My house is near the garden and is quiet and peaceful. You may contact me at mclark@ntbg.org if you are interested in swapping housing for some creature care and watering.
Mahalo!
NOTE: Margaret Clark is the Seed Bank Manager at NTBG; see Staff Directory at http://www.ntbg.org