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Archive for the ‘botanical art’ Category

‘Rare Book Walk’ Links Rare Books to Living Collections

Posted in botanical art, botanical art books, Education, general botany, Learning Opportunities on June 13, 2012|

The Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden has put selected treasures from its rare book room online and has created a new experience for Arboretum visitors. Now visitors to this popular southern California landmark can compare 19th-century botanical illustrations to living plants in the Arboretum’s collection.

The Arboretum Library has about 500 books in its Rare Book Room. The plants featured in the new Rare Book Walk are plants native to Mediterranean climates. Using a smartphone, visitors can click on markers posted on a Google map that reveals a plant’s location in the Arboretum. Accompanying each marker is a brief description of the plant and an illustration from one of the historic botany or horticultural books in the Arboretum’s library.

To see how the Rare Book Walk works with Google Maps, click here.

Learn more about this special project on the Arboretum’s website.

About the Arboretum
The Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden is a 127-acre botanical garden and historic site. It serves as the site for many garden-related events, including GROW! A Garden Festival. The Arboretum is a popular filming location and has served as a backdrop to many films, television shows and commercials. It is also home to the botanical illustration program founded by Olga Eysymontt. To view the current schedule of botanical art classes, visit the Arboretum’s listing at Classes Near You > Southern California.

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The Botanical Illustrations of Gordon Morrison

Posted in botanical art, Education, general botany, Learning Opportunities, Special Announcements, Special Events on June 11, 2012|

Swamp Mallow, courtesy of the Arnold Arboretum

From Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide to The Curious Naturalist magazine, from the Garden in the Woods in Framingham to the Missouri Botanical Gardens tropical rainforest exhibit,
Gordon Morrison has illuminated the natural world for over four decades. A retrospective of his work is now on view at the Arnold Arboretum in Boston.

A Natural Curiosity: A Retrospective of Images by Gordon Morrison is a look at his botanical work, highlighting the best of the thousands of illustrations he has created for education and conservation organizations.

This exhibition includes illustrations from Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide (1977), a book that is still in use and praised by many experts. Morrison’s illustrations, combined with a novel key system, made identifying wildflowers in the eastern United States simpler than ever before.

Original plates from the Peterson Field Guide to Forests series, Gordon’s own children’s book series; the Birds In The Garden series and the Native American series, both for Horticulture magazine, as well as interpretive panels completed for the New England Wildflower Society and the Missouri Botanical Gardens will also be on view.

Morrison’s work appears regularly in Mass Audubon’s Sanctuary magazine and in a variety of field guides and other natural history publications.

A Natural Curiosity: A Retrospective of Images by Gordon Morrison will be on view at the Arnold Arboretum Hunnewell Visitor Center through July 1, 2012. Visitor center hours are Monday-Friday (9 AM – 4 PM), Saturday (10 AM – 4 PM) and Sunday (12-4 PM).

You’re Invited!
You are invited to take part in a conversation

Trees for Nell, courtesy of the Arnold Arboretum

with Gordon Morrison. An Artist Talk with Mr. Morrison will be held at the Arnold Arboretum on Wednesday,
June 27, 2012 from 7:00-8:30 PM. Registration is requested for this FREE event. To register, click here.

Job Announcement: Botanical Illustration & Digital Arts

Posted in botanical art, Special Announcements on June 11, 2012|

Are you a botanical illustrator living near London? You may want to investigate the details about this job announcement posted by City Lit, a provider of part-time courses for adults in Covent Garden, London. Here is a quick summary:

Department:
Visual Arts, Photography and Digital Arts

Location:
City Lit, 1-10 Keeley Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2B 4 BA

Hourly Rate:
£33.91 per hour inclusive of pro rata holiday entitlement and preparation time.

Course Dates & Times:
Sundays; February 24, 2013 – March 17, 2013; 10:30 AM – 5:30 PM

Essential Criteria

At least 3 years’ professional working experience in botanical illustration using a variety of media.
A qualification relevant to the subject being taught.
Teaching Certificate (if teaching more than 50 hours per year at City Lit)
Evidence of continuing development

Desirable Criteria

Experience teaching botanical illustration to adults of mixed ability in group settings.
Current knowledge and evidence of at least 3 years’ professional experience using the latest versions of Photoshop and Illustrator software for illustration.
Good working knowledge of Apple Mac computer and the latest operating systems.

Many more criteria are listed in the job announcement. View the
job announcement online to download a detailed job description.

This is the first time City Lit has offered this kind of teaching position. City Lit does not currently offer ongoing courses in botanical illustration. However, they hope to offer more courses if the botanical illustration/digital arts course is successful.

Read the job announcement for Botanical Illustration Teacher

Application Deadline:
June 18, 2012 at Noon (UK time)

Interviews:
July 2-6, 2012

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Scientific Illustration & Cultural Prejudices

Posted in botanical art, Education, Learning Opportunities, scientific illustration on June 6, 2012|

The fifth seminar on scientific illustration led by Marie-Odile Bernez at the University of Burgundy in France, will be held on Friday June 15, 2012 in the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme. Beginning at 10:15 AM, professor Alix Cooper from Stony Brook University will focus on gender and the depiction of nature in the eighteenth century. Then Valérie Morisson will present a number of ethnographic and anthropological photographs from the end of the nineteenth century, questioning the issue of ethnic groups in science. Both speakers will address the question of scientific illustrations in the context of political/cultural prejudices.

Seminar on Scientific Illustration, June 15

Picturing Nature: Gender and the Politics of Description in Eighteenth-Century Natural History

Photographic Portraits in Anthropological and Ethnological British Journals 1860-1900 (Valerie Morrison, Dijon, France)

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Create Pop-up Wildflowers and Vegetables

Posted in botanical art, Education, gardening, Learning Opportunities on June 6, 2012|

Paper engineer and book artist, Shawn Sheehy, will teach you how to create a field guide of wildflowers and a journal for your garden.

See what’s new in the Classes Near You sections for Minnesota, Ohio and Illinois.

Shawn Sheehy
www.shawnsheehy.com
A book artist and paper engineer whose work incorporates ecological principles observed in nature. Sheehy’s art reflects his interests in ecosystems, natural resources, population biology and evolution.

Pop-Up Field Guide to Wildflowers

View Details/Register

Pop-Up Field Guide to Wildflowers – July 14-15, 2012; 10 AM – 4 PM. In this two-day workshop, you will create 8-10 pop-up cards featuring native flowers of the Midwest. Fundamental techniques of pop-up engineering will be demonstrated and practiced while building these flowers, using little more than a knife, glue and card stock. Aside from a collection of cards that you might either bind together and keep for further study or [as] gift[s] to family and friends, you will also receive the knowledge and tools to continue creating your own cards at home. No experience is necessary, but binding and/or sewing skills will speed your progress. This is a great workshop to take if you want to explore making your own greeting cards or would like to advance your skills in using paper as a medium for sculpture. Cost: $165. Location: Morgan Art of Papermaking Conservatory Cleveland, OH. View Details/Register

The Pop-Up Vegetable Garden – October 25 – November 2, 2012. Fundamental techniques of pop-up engineering will be demonstrated and practiced while building these vegetable plants, using little more than a knife, glue and card stock. At the end of the day you will have a collection of 4-5 cards that you might either keep for further study or gift to family and friends. No experience is necessary, but binding and/or sewing skills will speed your progress. Location: Chicago Botanic Garden Chicago, IL. Details and registration information will be posted here.

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Mindy Lighthipe on Blog Talk Radio Today!

Posted in botanical art, Education, Learning Opportunities, Special Announcements, Special Events on June 6, 2012|

Natural science illustrator, Mindy Lighthipe, will be interviewed on Blog Talk Radio this afternoon from 4-5 PM (Eastern). Mindy will discuss her Nature’s Wisdom Oracle cards from Schiffer Publishing.

Mindy’s collection is composed of 48 colorful art nature cards. These oracle cards display the power of Nature’s Wisdom that comes through her beautiful art. The messages are deeply rooted in the essence of humanity, with each card representing a facet of nature that is the spirit of living with nature. These messages are interwoven with animals and plants as part of its symbology, as well as a special message that helps the reader gain positive insight into the past, present, and future.

Mindy Lighthipe is a natural science illustrator, author and teacher. She teaches in the US and leads art expeditions to Costa Rica. In 2009, Mindy was awarded a Silver Medal from the Royal Horticultural Society for her painting series Symbiosis.

Learn more about Mindy, her art tours, and view her online gallery at www.botanicalartpainting.com.

Be sure to read about her 52-week challenge (52 Weeks/52 Paintings) and to see how she’s doing!

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The Transit of Venus and Joseph Banks’ Florilegium

Posted in botanical art, Education, general botany, herbarium, Learning Opportunities on June 6, 2012|

Yesterday the Transit of Venus across the sun received a lot of attention. Many of us were able to view it on the Internet through the many gadgets we have at our disposal. In 1769, however, James Cook, Joseph Banks and surviving members of the Endeavour crew had to endure many months at sea to watch this event unfold in Tahiti. Observing and documenting the Transit of Venus was one of the expedition’s assignments. They did see it and they did take notes.

This wasn’t their only mission, however. The Endeavour crew was sent out to confirm the presence or absence of a certain land mass in the southern hemisphere (i.e., Australia).

With the current attention focused on the Transit of Venus, I thought it would be a good time to give a little attention to the work of botanist Joseph Banks.

During the Endeavour expedition’s travels to South America, Tahiti, New Zealand, and Australia, Joseph Banks and his crew collected and described thousands of plants. Specimens were drawn by artist Sydney Parkinson who also applied watercolor to his sketches as a way of recording the colors of each plant.

The hard work of Banks’ team was to be recognized in a florilegium Banks wanted to create. He hired artists and master engravers, but in the end, never published his book. The 743 plates created by his team of artists and engravers were transferred to the British Museum and were not printed until 200 years later.

Today we are able to gain insight into the printing of Banks’ florilegium thanks to The National Museum of Australia. They created Banks’ Florilegium: From Plant to Print, an online gallery featuring nine plates from this historic work. This online gallery is more than a collection of nine colorful thumbnail-sized images. The gallery provides information about the materials behind each plate. Viewers are able to compare each plate to its herbarium specimen, the original sketch by Sydney Parkinson, and the final watercolor painting that was based on Parkinson’s sketch. The information in the interactive gallery is presented thoughtfully and provides an engaging learning experience.

Tour this fascinating exhibit for yourself. Go to Banks’ Florilegium: From Plant to Print.

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