Learning Opportunities | ArtPlantae Today

Archive for the ‘Learning Opportunities’ Category

Draw and paint plants of the High Desert at Ghost Ranch

Posted in botanical art, Education, Learning Opportunities on May 18, 2016|

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Helen Byers
www.helenbyers.com
Helen Byers is an artist and illustrator who is active in several genres and mediums. Her professional background includes college-level teaching of fine art and literature, book illustration, art journalism, and a career as a writer and editor in educational publishing.

Since 2005, Helen has taught annually at Ghost Ranch Education & Retreat Center. She teaches courses in botanical drawing, botanical painting, and field-sketching of high-desert flora and fauna. Since 2012, Helen has also been teaching at Tower Hill Botanic Garden (MA), the Concord Center for the Visual Arts (MA), Fruitlands Museums (MA) and Tin Mountain Conservation Center (NH).

Helen’s botanical work has been exhibited at juried and invitational shows in Washington, Massachusetts, and Florida. Her natural history illustration credits include Coming to Terms with Archaeology & Paleontology: A Dictionary of Artifacts and Old Bones (The Museums at Ghost Ranch: Abiquiu, NM, 2013). Helen is a member of the American Society of Botanical Artists, the New England Society of Botanical Artists, the Rocky Mountain Society of Botanical Artists, and Concord Center for the Visual Arts.

This summer Helen will teach two one-week classes at Ghost Ranch. Participants registering for both classes will receive 15% off the total price. Please contact the Registrar directly to receive this special discount.

Botanical Drawing in Colored Pencil

Practice close observation and drawing for accuracy using a technique combining colored pencil and watercolor pencil. Learn how to work in layers and how to burnish to achieve the desired effects for texture, value and color.

Botanical Painting in Watercolor
June 19-25, 2016
Code: G16A633

This class will focus on ways to refine the botanical painting process. Participants will learn how to use “wet into wet” techniques and “dry brush” techniques to achieve controlled washes, detail and texture. Color mixing will also be discussed.

For more information about each class, including lodging options, click here.

This information has also been posted to Classes Near You > New Mexico.

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Online classes about botany and designing with native plants

Posted in Education, Learning Opportunities on May 18, 2016|

The New England Wild Flower Society has announced online classes for Fall.
The online botany classes include a field trip option. The native plants design class will be open for four months.

The Society would also like to tell you about their plant diversity class with research botanist, Arthur Haines.

Here’s the latest news at Classes Near You > Massachusetts:

New England Wild Flower Society
www.newenglandwild.org
Conserving and promoting New England’s native plants to ensure healthy, biologically diverse landscapes. Educators and parents may be especially interested in the Society’s Go Botany program.

New England Plant Diversity: Session 4

Keeping up with changes in plant names can be challenging, but it reflects our expanding understanding of the plant kingdom based on genetics, a closer look at plant form, and new ways of analyzing relationships. Learn how to make sense of this new plant universe from one of the best botanists in the field, Arthur Haines. In the session 4 of this 5 session series, students will investigate advanced tricolpate families often referred to as euasterids (e.g., Lamiaceae, Plantaginaceae, Campanulaceae, Asteraceae).

Note: We recommend you take New England Plant Diversity: Session 1 first; Sessions 2-5 may be taken in any order.

Recommended text: Plant Systematics: A Phylogenetic Approach.

Course: $46 (Member) / $54 (Nonmember)

View Details/Register

Plants 101: Introduction to the Green World
Monday, September 12, 2016 to Friday, October 14, 2016
Instructor: Dr. Elizabeth Farnsworth, Senior Research Ecologist

Explore New England’s plant life. In this online and field course you will learn what plants are, how they function, and why they are essential to all life on earth. You’ll also discover many of the region’s native and non-native plants. This course includes five self-paced online modules offered over the course of five weeks, featuring lots of interactions with the instructor and fellow students. You can elect to join an optional field trip led by an enthusiastic botanist in your state.

Field Trip Note: One field trip will be held in each New England state and participation is optional. If you would like to attend the trip as part of the course, please register for both the course and the field trip. Field trip dates and specific locations will be announced six weeks before the course launches.

Course: $100 (Member) / $125 (Nonmember)
Course + Field Trip: $128 (Member) / $160 (Nonmember)

View Details/Register

Plants 102: Deeper into the Green World
Monday, October 17, 2016 to Friday, November 18, 2016
Instructor: Dr. Elizabeth Farnsworth, Senior Research Ecologist

Delve deeper into the New England Flora in this online and field course. Learn how plants change as they grow; how they interact with other species; and how geology, soils, land-use history, hydrology, and climate shape the plant communities of the region. You’ll adopt a plant to observe throughout the course and enjoy interacting with the course instructor and your fellow students. This course includes five weeks of online instruction. You can elect to join an optional field trip led by an enthusiastic botanist in your state. Plants 101 is a complement to Plants 102 but is not a prerequisite.

Field Trip Note: One field trip will be held in each New England state and participation is optional. If you would like to attend the trip as part of the course, please register for both the course and the field trip. Field trip dates and specific locations will be announced six weeks before the course launches.

Course: $100 (Member) / $125 (Nonmember)
Course + Field Trip: $128 (Member) / $160 (Nonmember)

View Details/Register

Designing with Native Plants
Open Enrollment (November 14, 2016 through April 2, 2017)
Instructor: Dr. Elizabeth Farnsworth, Senior Research Ecologist

This entirely self-paced online course will teach you the basics of designing with native plants and show you how to incorporate native plants into your garden and landscape. Discover the variety of native plants found throughout New England and learn how to design a visually interesting landscape that also supports biodiversity. Students complete the course at their own pace.

Fee: $64 (Member) / $80 (Nonmember)
Limit: Unlimited

View Details/Register

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Light and texture in botanical art

Posted in botanical art, Learning Opportunities on May 13, 2016|

Learn how to master the textures and surfaces of the plant world!

Catherine Watters, award-winning artist and one of the curriculum specialists for the Filoli Botanical Art Certificate Program, will teach Special Effects: Mastering Textures and Details at Wellesley College Botanic Gardens (WCBG).

Learn how light affects texture when painting hairy, fuzzy, bumpy, pillowy, prickly and woody textures. Then learn how to paint translucent, opaque, shiny and wet surfaces. This special three-day workshop will occur August 9-11, 2016 from 9:30 am – 3:30 pm each day.

Cost for WCBG Friends Members is $395; nonmembers $495.

For more information and to register, click on the image to download the flyer.

More Art at Wellesley Botanic Garden

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Act Now! Spaces available in composition class with Helen Allen at Wellesley College Botanic Gardens

Posted in botanical art, Education, Learning Opportunities, Special Announcements on May 11, 2016|

Helen Allen, artist, teacher and director of The Chelsea School of Botanical Art in England will be at Wellesley College Botanic Gardens next week to teach a composition class. Last-minute openings means you have the unique opportunity to learn from Helen without flying overseas. Click on the image below to download the flyer.

Contact Wellesley College Botanic Gardens ASAP by email or by phone to register. The Garden’s phone number is (781) 283-3094.

Composition Challenge
Plant studies, colors, and drawings are the fun part of creating a beautiful painting, but the challenge is always in composing the page. Helen Allen leads the challenge to create an image that is balanced and draws the viewer to have a closer look – an image that can enchant and inform. Through three days, you will fall in love with your chosen plant, study its habit, and develop drawings that can be used to compose three different paintings. Identify blocks and position of color and study the balance of your compositions. Then choose the best and spend a day adding color to guide you in completing the painting at home.

3 days: Friday, May 20 – Sunday, May 22, 2016
9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
BAC 16 152 / 252
WCBG Friends Members $375 / Non-Members $475

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Artists to study roses at New York Botanical Garden

Posted in Education, Learning Opportunities on April 21, 2016|

This summer get to know the familiar rose in an entirely new way. Award-winning artist Carol Woodin will guide you through a field study of roses and show you how to match the colors of petals and leaves.

Here is what’s new at Classes Near You > New York:

Carol Woodin
www.carolwoodin.com
Carol is an award-winning freelance artist whose specialties include orchids, rare wildflowers, heirloom fruits and garden plants. Visit her website to view her workshop schedule.

Roses in Color

Observe the intricacies of the familiar rose by creating a field study in the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden at the New York Botanical Garden. Return to the classroom to learn advanced color techniques for paper or vellum. Participants have the option of working in watercolor, colored pencil or graphite. This three-day workshop will give students plenty of time to perfect their color depiction of rose petals and leaves.

Cost: $359.00 NYBG member, $395 non-member

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Study, draw and paint seashore subjects, plants and habitat at Eagle Hill Institute

Posted in Education, Learning Opportunities on April 17, 2016|

Plan now for summer school in Maine.
Here’s the latest at Classes Near You > Maine:

Eagle Hill Institute
www.eaglehill.us
The Humboldt Field Research Institute offers professional-level natural history science seminars and learning opportunities addressing all aspects of natural history. The Institute publishes three journals about natural history and the environment — the Northeastern Naturalist, the Southeastern Naturalist, and the Journal of the North Atlantic.

Seashore Subjects in Pen & Ink and Color Pencil

Download flyer

Format: Lecture, Demonstration, Field trips, Hands-on, Compositions, Critique
Venue: Eagle Hill Institute, Steuben, Maine
Contact: Marilyn Mayer by email or 207-546-2821 ext.1.
Fee: $475

Painting in Watercolor: Groupings of Maine Plants in Habitat
Carol Woodin
Steuben, Maine USA
July 17 – July 23, 2016

Download flyer

Format: Lecture, Demonstration, Field trips, Hands-on, Compositions, Critique
Venue: Eagle Hill Institute, Steuben, Maine
Contact: Marilyn Mayer by email or 207-546-2821 ext.1.
Fee: $475

View complete schedule of seminars, courses and workshops at Eagle Hill

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Urban landscape, Plant ID courses in New England

Posted in Education, Learning Opportunities on April 17, 2016|

Now at Classes Near You > Massachusetts!

Willows

This class will introduce you to the fascinating willow family and help you recognize and identify local and alien species in spring. After a class discussion that will include a slide show and demonstration of live material, we will visit a field site nearby and observe a few willow species. Bring a hand lens and waterproof footwear.
Cost: $60 members, $75 nonmembers

Eligible for Continuing Education Units and satisfies requirement for certificate program. View Details/Register

Measuring Soil Health and Managing Site Challenges in an Urban Landscape
Garden in the Woods, Framingham, MA
Sunday, April 24, 2016
9:00 am – 3:30 pm
This hands-on, indoor/outdoor workshop introduces the concept of the soil health assessment and the implementation of soil health indicators for evaluating the biological, chemical, and physical attributes of soil as they pertain to the constraints of a site. Use of these soil health indicators will help landscape architects, garden designers, arborists, and landscape professionals determine the appropriate products, tools, equipment, and techniques needed to correct soil constraints and to develop a seasonal maintenance plan for a newly installed landscape, from installation to establishment and on to maturity. Bring a bag lunch.
Cost: $86 member, $104 nonmember

Eligible for Continuing Education Units and satisfies requirement for certificate program. View Details/Register

Native Herbaceous Plant Materials: Early Season
Garden in the Woods, Framingham, MA
Thursdays, April 28, May 12, June 9 and Tuesday May 24
1:00 – 3:30 pm

Discover numerous native perennials suitable for New England gardens. We’ll look at native herbaceous plants that bloom in spring and early summer, focusing on how to use them effectively to create beautiful landscapes and gardens. Be prepared to walk in the Garden each day. This class is appropriate for landscape professionals and avid home gardeners. It is a companion to Native Herbaceous Plant Materials: Late Season, but can be taken separately.
Cost: $154 member, $182 nonmember

Eligible for Continuing Education Units and satisfies requirement for certificate program. View Details/Register