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iPhoneography, Painting & Botanical Art at Mt. Cuba Center

Posted in botanical art, Education, gardening, Learning Opportunities on August 19, 2014|

Tithonia @ 2006 by John Gist. All rights reserved

Mt. Cuba Center
www.mtcubacenter.org
Mt. Cuba Center is a botanical garden in Hockessin, DE dedicated to the conservation, display, and research of native plants. Their woodland wildflower gardens are recognized as the area’s finest. The Center hosts many interesting classes related to plants, gardening and the arts. View their full schedule of on-site classes and distance learning classes on their website.

iPhoneography: The Art of iPhone® Photography

Forgot your camera? Not to worry, use your iPhone®. Find out how you can take stunning nature photographs and pleasing portraits with your phone. Join Julia Grace for this two-day workshop where you will learn the basics such as lighting and composition, how to use several photography apps, and the value of post-processing work. A basic understanding of how to use your phone and apps is required for this class. A list of required apps will be provided upon registration.

Julia Grace’s interests include photography, wool sculpture, and jewelry making. Her pieces are licensed for commercial use and sold in various venues.

Cost: $45 (iPhone and apps required for this class)
Questions: 302-239-4244 or education@mtcubacenter.org

View Details/Register 

Painting Workshop
 Five days: Monday-Friday, September 29 – October 3, 2014 
10:00 am – 3:00 pm 

Interpret the beauty of Mt. Cuba Center’s exquisite garden using

Approaching Storm. © William Turnay. All rights reserved

William Ternay is an illustrator, painter, and art instructor. His work includes set design, children’s books, murals, portraits, and landscape paintings in a variety of mediums.

Cost: $175
Questions: 302-239-4244 or education@mtcubacenter.org

View Details/Register 

Fall Photography Stroll 
Saturday, October 25, 2014
7:00 am – 11:00 am 

Enjoy this early morning opportunity with fall color near its peak to photograph the gardens of Mt. Cuba Center. Photographers of all experience levels, from novices to experts, receive expertise and guidance on the technical and aesthetic elements of photography. Chris Starr, a skilled photographer, shares advice, techniques, inspiration, and encouragement. Bring your camera lenses and camera manual. Be prepared to walk outdoors.

Chris Starr is a talented photographer who has played many roles at Mt. Cuba Center since 1984. Currently he is a member of the grounds team.

Cost: $20
Questions: 302-239-4244 or education@mtcubacenter.org

View Details/Register
 

Fabulous Felt Creations 
Thursday, November 13, 2014 
1:00 pm – 4:00 pm  

Let native plants be your inspiration as you practice the popular fiber craft of needle felting, the art of sculpting wool fleece using a special barbed needle. With a few simple techniques, create many different pieces from jewelry, embellishments, and ornaments, to toys, wool pets, or sculptures. You can also appliqué the fleece onto your favorite bag, hat, or coat. Learn a variety of needle felting techniques to create your very own native plant accessory, sculpture, or appliquéd embellishment. Go home with all the materials you need to continue felting.

Julia Grace’s interests include photography, wool sculpture, and jewelry making. Her pieces are licensed for commercial use and sold in various venues.

Cost: $75 (materials included)
Questions: 302-239-4244 or education@mtcubacenter.org

View Details/Register
 

Natural Holiday Wreaths Birds Will Love 
Thursday, December 4, 2014
10:00 am – 12:00 pm  

Enjoy the holidays with our feathered friends. Decorate a circle of greens with dried flowers, nuts, seed pods, berries, and ribbon to make an attractive holiday present for our overwintering birds. Gain knowledge about which native plants provide great fruit or seed for holiday wreaths. Bring hand pruners and gloves.

Donna Wiley is the horticulturist for Mt. Cuba Center’s Formal Gardens. Her expertise includes container gardening and floral arranging.

Cost: $65 (materials included)
Questions: 302-239-4244 or education@mtcubacenter.org

View Details/Register
 

Introduction to Botanical Art 
Three Saturdays, March 7, 14, & 21, 2015
10:00 pm – 2:00 pm  

Learn to draw plants in this introductory class using pen and pencil. Carefully observe the subject and understand form and structure. Practice sighting skills to place the subject in a way that is both pleasing and exciting. See the world with fresh eyes and carry inspiration and an individual point of view into a finished work. Bring your lunch and all the materials outlined on the course materials list available on the Mt. Cuba Center website.

John Gist is an experienced art instructor and acclaimed artist. He has taught art for over 15 years and his work has been displayed in several exhibitions.

Cost: $175
Questions: 302-239-4244 or education@mtcubacenter.org

View Details/Register
 

Special Event: Art-In
All artists welcome!
Friday, September 26 (Rain Date: Saturday September 27)
10:00 am – 4:00 pm

Free to participating artists, artists must register by calling 302-239-8807, emailing education@mtcubacenter.org or by registering online.

Take the time for a day of art in the garden. Let your creativity bloom while you draw, paint, or photograph Mt. Cuba Center’s naturalistic gardens. Meet other participating artists and enjoy a lovely day of art.

Although this is a free event to participating artists, registration is required. Call Mt. Cuba Center at 302.239.4244, visit the Art-In page on the Mt. Cuba Center website. Parking is limited, early registration strongly encouraged.

Please note that Mt. Cuba Center is a carry-in, carry-out facility. All solvents, waste water and trash must be removed from the site. No dumping of any solid or liquid art medium is permitted in the house or gardens. For more information, please review guidelines.

Rain date for this event is Saturday, September 27.

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Plants in Pencil at Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum

Posted in Education, Learning Opportunities on August 12, 2014|

Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum
www.naturemuseum.org
Located in Chicago, the museum strives to create relationships between nature and people through their education programs, exhibitions, citizen science projects and research.

Plants in Pencil

Tuesday Series
September 9, October 14, November 11 and December 9. Cost: $30. Class hours: 1-4 pm. Register for the Tuesday workshops here.

Wednesday Series
September 17, October 15, November 19, & December 17. Cost: $30. Class hours: 6-9 pm. Register for the Wednesday workshops here.

To register by phone, call (773) 755-5128.

This information can also be found at Classes Near You > Illinois.

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Botanical Painting in Gouache

Posted in botanical art, Education, Learning Opportunities on August 12, 2014|

See what’s new at Classes Near You > New Jersey!

Carrie Di Costanzo
www.carriedicostanzo.com
Carrie Di Costanzo is a fashion illustrator who is now focused on botanical art. Her work has been exhibited in several ASBA exhibitions and has been published in The Botanical Artist and Colorful Edibles. View Carrie’s portfolio online.

Botanical Painting in Gouache

Have fun while learning to paint with gouache, and gain insight into how to achieve form and depth with different subjects. Through demonstrations and critiques, students will learn how to paint the many complex textures, details, and colors of nature. Students will work at their own pace on a variety of botanical subjects of their choice. This will be an introductory class in a relaxed atmosphere.
Cost: $153 nonmembers, $128 members

View Details/Register

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Sustainability Fair for Families and Gardeners

Posted in Education, Learning Opportunities, Special Announcements, Special Events on August 5, 2014|

On Saturday, September 6, Contra Costa Master Gardeners (CCMG) is hosting their second annual community event promoting healthy gardening with a sustainable garden fair that features hands-on demonstrations, topical talks, a plant sale, and self-guided tours of “Our Garden,” the Master Gardener’s demonstration site in Walnut Creek.

“This day is designed to give each of us ideas on simple things we can do to help our environment. All of us making small changes can make a positive impact on the environment,” according to Laura McCauley, CCMG Association President of the all-volunteer organization.

The Second Annual Sustainability Fair will feature more than one dozen organizations demonstrating how people can create a sustainable lifestyle. Strategies to be discussed include recycling, seed saving, sheet mulching, smart-water usage and how to replace a lawn using drought-tolerant UC Davis Arboretum All-Stars. There will also be a Children’s Activity Center, vendors offering healthy local food and ongoing talks and demonstrations about removing your lawn, growing vegetables, raising chickens, beekeeping, beneficial insects, making good compost, and much more.

Judy Ryan, CCMG Sustainability Fair coordinator said she is excited to see so many other organizations joining together to promote sustainability in neighborhoods and communities.

The Second Annual Sustainability Fair will be held at the CCMG demonstration site at N. Wiget Lane and Shadelands Drive in Walnut Creek, CA (map).
Event hours are 10 AM – 3 PM.

Visit the 2014 Sustainability Fair

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Drawing Trees with Sarah Simblet

Posted in botanical art, Education, Learning Opportunities on August 5, 2014|

University of Oxford Botanic Garden
www.botanic-garden.ox.ac.uk
The University of Oxford Botanic Garden is a collection of 13 distinct gardens and seven display greenhouses featuring over 5,000 species of plants. The garden offers educational programs for the public and for teachers. Together with the Harcourt Arboretum, the University of Oxford Botanic Garden forms the Museums and Collections department at Oxford University.

View the complete schedule of classes to be held at both the Oxford Botanic Garden and the Harcourt Arboretum. The wonderful selection of classes address topics such as: invasive species, bees, woodland management, willow weaving, tree climbing, plant identification and botanical art.

The New Sylva: Drawing trees with Sarah Simblet

This workshop explores the magnificent collection of trees at Harcourt Arboretum and offers tuition in how to draw a tree using pencil, pen and ink. Suitable for children and adults, beginners and more experienced artists, Sarah will explain approaches to drawing structure, form and proportion, how to use ink, and how to capture the diverse characters of Autumnal trees. Bring along your own sketchbook and other drawing materials will be provided.
Sarah is a graphic artist, writer and broadcaster, who teaches at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art in Oxford.

Printmaking Workshop at the Botanic Garden with Robin Wilson and Rosie Fairfax-Cholmeley
Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th October 2014
10.00am to 4.00pm both days
Venue – Oxford Botanic Garden
Tickets cost £120 for the two-day course (includes a sandwich lunch on both days)
Register

Learn the techniques of traditional linocut printmaking with artists Robin and Rosie from The Wytham Studio. On this two-day course you will explore the Botanic Garden and transform your drawings into linocut prints.
Robin and Rosie work with the reduction colour printing method which they will teach you to create successful colour prints. The entire process is done by hand with no large or prohibitively expensive equipment and their aim is to give you the confidence to continue experimenting on your own. The course will take you through sketching for printmaking, image composition, block preparation and image transfer, carving technique, inks and papers, inking up and printing.

Imagining the Woods: Art from the Wytham Studio
From Thursday 18th September until 31st October there will be an exhibition in the Gallery at the Botanic Garden by Robin Wilson and Rosie Fairfax-Cholmeley. (no booking required)

This information can also be found at Classes Near You > England.

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Botany for Illustrators

Posted in Education on July 30, 2014|

Here is some news shared with me by a reader in Washington, DC. Sign up soon, this class begins in September.

Here is the latest at Classes Near You > Washington DC.

United States Botanic Garden (USBG)
www.usbg.gov
The U.S. Botanic Garden was established in 1820 and is managed by the U.S. Congress. The garden serves as a living plant museum. The Corcoran College of Art & Design has partnered with the USBG and offers a certificate in botanical art and illustration through the garden. For details about exhibits, lectures, tours, and workshops at USBG, visit their Events page.

Botany for Illustrators

Illustrators will learn plant morphology and taxonomy. This class will be held on Tuesdays through October and on a Saturday in October.
Cost: $325 Friends, $375 non-members.

View Details/Register

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An Invitation to Explore Thorns, Spines and Prickles

Posted in botanical art, Education, Special Announcements, Special Events on July 23, 2014| 1 Comment »

By The Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation

The Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation invites you to view
Dangerous Beauty: Thorns, Spines and Prickles from September 18 to December 18, 2014. This exhibition includes artworks and books that depict the formidable and yet beautiful defensive structures of thorns, spines and prickles that have evolved to protect plants from predation. Featured are drawings, watercolors, prints and books displaying thistles, teasels, cacti, roses, berry brambles, stinging nettles and citrus trees.

The first step in appreciating these defensive structures is an understanding of what they are and how they differ from each other. In the most basic sense, thorns, spines and prickles can all refer to the sharp, stiff, woody defensive appendages found on some plants. Thorns are modified stems, as in Citrus Linnaeus. Spines are modified leaves, as in Echinocactus Link & Otto. Prickles differ in that they emerge from the epidermis, mesophyll or cortex of the plant, as in Rosa Linnaeus. Examples of these structures will be depicted in a variety of ways, from detailed scientific illustrations to loose interpretations, but all showing how beautiful these structures can be.

Left, Citron: Citrus medica [Citrus medica Linnaeus, Rutaceae], watercolor on paper by Marilena Pistoia (Italy), [pre-1984], 35 × 25.5 cm, for Laura Peroni, Il Linguaggio del Fiori (Milan, Arnoldo Mondadori, 1984, p. 53), HI Art accession no. 6773.20, © 1984 Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, Milan, All rights reserved.
Center, Teasel [Dipsacus Linnaeus, Dipsacaceae], watercolor on paper by Celia Crampton (Africa/England), 2003, 37 × 28 cm, HI Art accession no. 7586,
© 2003 Celia Crampton, All rights reserved.
Right, Rosa canina L. [Rosa Linnaeus, Rosaceae], watercolor on paper by Petr Liska (Czech Republic), 1981, 24 × 16.5 cm, HI Art accession no. 6463, © 1981 Petr Liska, All rights reserved.

Artists represented are Marie Angel (England, 1923–2010); Diana Carmichael (United Kingdom/South Africa, 1926–2010); Louis Claude de Chastillon (France, 1639–1734); Celia Crampton (Africa/England); Anne Ophelia Todd Dowden (United States, 1907–2007); Raymond Dowden (United States, 1905–1982); Georg Dionys Ehret (Germany/England, 1708–1770); Henry Evans (United States, 1918–1990); Alejandro Gavriloff (Estonia/Argentina, 1914–1993); Lucretia Hamilton (United States, 1908–1986); Charlotte Hannan (Germany/United States); Jeanne Russell Janish (also Mrs. Carl F. Janish; United States, 1902–1998); Christabel King (England); Carl Ignaz Leopold Kny (Germany, 1841–1916); Paul Landacre (United States, 1893–1963); Dorika Leyniers de Buyst (Belgium); Chrissie Lightfoot (England); Petr Liska (Czechoslovakia); Stanley Maltzman (United States); Yoshikaru Matsumura (Japan, 1906–1967); Roderick McEwen (Scotland, 1932–1982); Joan McGann (United States); Jeni Neale (also Jeni Barlow; England); Gunnar Normann (Sweden, 1912–2005); Marilena Pistoia (Italy); Frantisek Procházka (Czechoslovakia, 1911–1976); Pierre-Joseph Redouté (Belgium, 1759–1840); Elizabeth Rice (England); Nicolas Robert (France, 1614–1685); Christian Schkuhr (Germany, 1741–1811); Geraldine King Tam (United States); Gesina B. Threlkeld (Netherlands/United States); Unknown artist (Mexico, fl.1787–1803), Torner Collection of Sessé & Mociño Biological Illustrations; Unknown artist (United States, fl.1900s), USDA Forest Service Collection; Frederick Andrews Walpole (United States, 1861–1904). A selection of rare books from the Hunt Institute Library collection also is included in this exhibition.

Join us Thursday, September 18, 2014 from 5–7 PM for an opening reception. At 5:30 PM Assistant Curator of Art Carrie Roy will give a short introduction to the exhibition in the gallery. We will also open on Saturday, October 11, 1–4 pm, during Carnegie Mellon University’s Cèilidh Weekend festivities. Docent–led tours will be available throughout the afternoon.

Related

Cabinet of Curiosities
During Fall 2014, The Hunt’s Cabinet of Curiosities will highlight books from the Library’s collection featuring plants with thorns, spines and prickles. Humans are often undeterred by these sometimes pain-inducing plant features, finding that their sharpness can serve a purpose or that the plant is useful despite the pricks and jabs one might incur. Visit the Cabinet in the library’s lobby to explore how these plants have been utilized.

The exhibition will be on display on the 5th floor of the Hunt Library building at Carnegie Mellon University and will be open to the public free of charge.
Hours: Monday–Friday, 9 AM to Noon and 1–5 PM; Sunday, 1–4 PM (except November 23 and November 27-30). Because hours are subject to change, please call or email before your visit to confirm. For further information, contact the Hunt Institute at 412-268-2434.

About the Institute
The Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, a research division of Carnegie Mellon University, specializes in the history of botany and all aspects of plant science and serves the international scientific community through research and documentation. The Institute meets the reference needs of botanists, biologists, historians, conservationists, librarians, bibliographers and the public at large, especially those concerned with any aspect of the North American flora.

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