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Archive for the ‘botanical art’ Category

What is expected of artists both during and after a residency? Ruth Ava Lyons explains.

Posted in botanical art, Education, Learning Opportunities, Special Articles & Interviews, Special Events on February 13, 2013|

Artist residencies sound romantic. However a residency comes with expenses and logistical issues you may never have considered.

Featured guest Ruth Ava Lyons explains what is expected of artists during and after a residency.

Artists generally have to pay for their round-trip transportation to a residency. Housing and studio space is covered as well as meals. Sometimes there is a small stipend for materials. A residency can range from 2 weeks to one year, so you have to be contractually bound to a time frame. This is why it is good to do residencies when you are young and do not have to deal with the interruption in family life with children or occupation. The artist is expected to…

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ArtPlantae Recognized for Encouraging Interest in Nature

Posted in Blog News, botanical art, nature, Special Announcements on February 13, 2013| 4 Comments »

ArtPlantae has received a Making A Mark Award by artist and writer Katherine Tyrrell, editor of Making A Mark, a blog about art for artists and art lovers. Katherine’s resource-rich blog is rated #3 out of the top 25 art blogs in the UK.

Katherine awarded ArtPlantae with The Going Greener Gong for 2012. This award is given to the art blog “most stimulating in relation to getting us in touch with nature and the environment.”

It is an honor to receive this award from Katherine and I appreciate her bringing attention to the site and the wonderful guests who have taught us so much.

View previous award winners of The Going Greener Gong, as well as winners in the plein air category and the sketchbook category at Making A Mark.

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Do residency programs accept up-and-coming artists?

Posted in botanical art, Education, Learning Opportunities, Special Articles & Interviews, Special Events on February 12, 2013|

Last week Ruth shared some ways artists can learn about residency programs. Today Ruth answers the question:

Do residency programs accept up-and-coming artists or do they only want to deal with artists with extensive portfolios?

Ruth says…

The cost of being an artist is very high, with competition being a fact of the lifestyle. It isn’t enough to be productive and talented…you have to stay on top of a self-marketing plan 24/7. There is a great deal of rejection that accompanies the struggle, so you have to be very persistent and keep letting programs/institutions know of your existence. This approach applies to residency programs as well.

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UC Riverside Botanic Gardens Hosts Poster Contest

Posted in botanical art, Learning Opportunities, Photography, Special Announcements, Special Events on February 12, 2013|

For the past fourteen years, the botanical gardens at the University of California Riverside has hosted Primavera in the Gardens, its annual fundraiser. This year the UCR Botanic Gardens will celebrate its 15th Annual Primavera event and the 50th anniversary of the founding of the gardens. In celebration of these important milestones, the UCR Botanic Gardens is inviting local artists to submit original artwork to their annual poster art contest.

Artists in the Riverside area are eligible to submit original artwork in two categories — photography and painting/drawing. All entries must be of the
UCR Botanic Gardens and be no smaller than 11″ x 14″. All entry forms and artwork must be sent to Margo Chabot no later than March 15, 2013.

First- and second-place awards will be given in both categories. The four award-winning pieces will be auctioned off at the 2013 Primavera Silent Auction. The two first-place winners will become the exclusive property of the UCR Botanic Gardens and will be used as the artwork for the 2013 Primavera event. Artwork will be printed on posters that will be distributed throughout the Riverside area.

First-place winners in each category will each receive four tickets to Primavera 2013, second-place winners will each receive two tickets.

For more information, download the call for entries packet below:
Primavera in the Gardens Poster Art Contest

Please direct all questions to Margo Chabot or Brightie Dunn.

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Study & Draw Carnivorous Plants at Splinter Hill Bog

Posted in botanical art, botany, Education, general botany, Learning Opportunities, nature, Sketching & Journaling, travel on February 12, 2013|

Valerie Webb of The Illustrated Garden will lead a three-day workshop at Splinter Hill Bog in Alabama, a preserve that is home to several species of carnivorous plants, including five species of pitcher plants.

Here is what’ new at Classes Near You > Alabama!

The Illustrated Garden, A Studio Blog
www.valwebb.com
Val Webb is the 2013 Artist-in-Residence at the Mobile Botanical Gardens. This year Val will work at the gardens and encourage others to sketch the garden’s collections to learn about plants, gardening and all that the Mobile Botanical Gardens has to offer. Visit Val’s website to view her online tutorial, Botanical Drawing with Pencil and Watercolor. Connect with The Illustrated Garden on Facebook.

Botanical Drawing: Splinter Hill Bog and Beyond

detailed itinerary and registration information

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Using Plants to Connect People With Nature

Posted in botanical art, Education, Learning Opportunities, Special Articles & Interviews, Special Events on February 6, 2013|

Plants have a presence in each of the paintings created by Ruth Ava Lyons.
I asked Ruth why she chose plants to connect viewers to nature.

Ruth replied:

I like a field-based approach to my subject matter. I wander in various environments and study and synthesize and translate and interpret my impressions of the natural world. Artists like me vacillate between our direct experiences in nature and the solitary studio setting. We follow the work of biologists, botanists, ecologists, and naturalists to inform and strengthen our visions with their findings, so there is a lot of cross-cultural personal research that takes place as well. It is always challenging for me to attempt to capture the essence of plant imagery while…

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Philadelphia Society of Botanical Illustrators to Present ‘Her Majesty’s Bouquet’ at Philadelphia Flower Show

Posted in botanical art on February 6, 2013|

Magnolia virginiana painted by Keiko Tarver, a member of the Philadelphia Society of Botanical Artists. The magnolia is one of the American plants sent to England by John Bartram whose garden was and is still in Philadelphia. Used with permission.

The Philadelphia Flower Show opens in only a few weeks. The world’s longest-running and largest indoor flower show will be held March 2-10, 2013 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

In honor of the show’s theme “Brilliant!”, the Philadelphia Society of Botanical Illustrators will present “Her Majesty’s Bouquet”, a botanical art exhibition featuring the flowers of Great Britain. Included in the exhibition will be paintings of hollyhocks and peonies, hellebores and daffodils — all flowers found in Great Britain. Many of the plants and flowers that will be on view were sent originally to England by Philadelphia naturalist, John Bartram.

Members of the Philadelphia Society of Botanical Illustrators (PSBI) will be at the show daily from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm to conduct demonstrations, distribute coloring sheets to children, and to discuss the more than 50 paintings that will be on view during the show. These paintings were selected from more than 80 that were submitted. Three judges from the fields of horticulture, botany and art chose the final pieces for this exhibition.

Botanical art is an ancient art form whose original purpose was to accurately depict the herbs and flowers important to medicine. Today it continues to aid botanists, horticulturalists, and pharmaceutical scientists with their identification of new plant species. Contemporary botanical artists celebrate nature with not only precision, but also an appreciation of its beauty and intricacy. As Virginia Fitzpatrick, president of PSBI, says, “We combine intellectual knowledge of plants and experience with art materials into our paintings and drawings.”

About the Philadelphia Society of Botanical Illustrators
The Philadelphia Society of Botanical Illustrators was formed 15 years ago and has over 75 members. The Society exhibits throughout the Delaware Valley. Past venues include The Station Gallery outside Wilmington, the Friends Hospital in Northeast Philadelphia, and the Jenkins Arboretum in Devon. Their focus is “to bring botanical illustration to the attention of many audiences”.

For more information, contact Sarah Maxwell.