This year the theme of the Philadelphia Flower Show is ARTiculture: Where Art Meets Horticulture. Event organizers promise to give the comfortable centuries-old union between art and horticulture a new twist when the show opens on Saturday, March 1, 2014.
Contributing to this refreshing look at art and horticulture are artists of the Philadelphia Society of Botanical Illustrators (PSBI). Society members will conduct demonstrations of botanical art techniques March 1-9, 2014 in the Grand Hall. Visitors will have the opportunity to learn from artists 10:00 AM – 8:00 PM daily.
Complementing members’ demonstrations will be an exhibition of nearly 50 botanical paintings. As the banner in the Society’s booth states, the exhibition of “Dynamic Botanics” created by members clearly demonstrates “The Art of Botany.” Featured subjects range from delicate hellebores to the monster cones of the sugar pine tree. Each subject is lovingly depicted, usually in watercolor but sometimes in colored pencil and oil. The paintings selected for this year’s flower show were selected by three judges — a biologist, an artist and a horticulturist.
The Philadelphia Society of Botanical Illustrators is comprised of more than 75 botanical artists from the Philadelphia area. Many of them teach other aspiring artists and teach in a joint art program with Arcadia University benefiting teenagers in Philadelphia public schools.
The Society has participated in outreach programs such as the Arcadia program for more than ten years. The Society pays instructors, purchases art supplies and gives art materials to young people who come from areas of the city where there is limited, if any, art instruction. The intent is to encourage students to learn the fundamentals of scientific and botanical illustration for possible careers and for their own enjoyment.
Learn more about the Philadelphia Society of Botanical Illustrators on their website at PSBI-art.org.
ArtPlantae Today 