ArtPlantae Today

Losing Paradise? Endangered Plants Here and Around the World opens at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History on Saturday August 14. Organized by the American Society of Botanical Artists, this traveling exhibition brings attention to plant diversity, the fragile state of endangered species, and the efforts by botanists and botanical artists to document and describe thousands of species of plants.

The Smithsonian will host many interactive learning opportunities during the exhibition. One opportunity to learn from botanists and illustrators is through the Ask The Expert forum. Submit your questions through the museum’s website and your questions will be answered and posted online on specific dates. The first installment of answers will be posted on September 13, 2010.

Museum visitors will have the opportunity to watch illustrators work as part of The Illustrator Is In program featuring scientific illustrators from the Washington D.C. area. Ten illustrators are participating in this demonstration series and they will discuss everything from traditional botanical art techniques to digital illustration techniques. View the calendar of events for this exhibition for details and to schedule email reminders so you don’t miss your opportunity to learn from this group of accomplished scientific illustrators.

If a you want to experience botanical illustration yourself, you may be interested in the following workshops:

• The Art and Science of Botanical Illustration – Thursday, October 14;
  3:00 PM – 5:00 PM. Smithsonian botanist, Gary Krupnick, will teach you how herbarium specimens are used in conservation research. Botanical illustrator, Alice Tangerini, will give participants a behind-the-scenes look at how she works with botanists to document plants. Members $45 / General Admission $55
• Introduction to Creating Botanical Art (3-sessions) – Sundays, October 17 – 31; 10:00 AM – 4:30 PM. introductory course in the techniques of botanical illustration. Participants will learn how to prepare a sketch for painting while receiving detailed step-by-step instruction from botanical artist, Doreen Bolnick. Members $215 / General Admission $261

The Losing Paradise website is a must-see. Visit the site and you will be able to…

• Experience first-hand, the assessment technique used by the Plant Conservation Unit when determining the conservation status of plant species.
• Learn how the Smithsonian’s botanical illustrator applies a four-step approach to creating botanical plates.
• Study paintings of endangered plants and view herbarium specimens up-close. The zoom-in feature will get you a front row seat even though you are miles away!
• Share your own botanical illustrations with others online.
• Send a painting of an endangered plant to a friend via e-postcard.
• Learn how you can become involved in plant conservation.
• Browse the Smithsonian’s extensive collection of botanical illustrations.
• Learn more about the Smithsonian’s Department of Botany.

The Losing Paradise? exhibition will be at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History August 14 – December 12, 2010. For visitor information, visit the museum’s website at http://www.mnh.si.edu.

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Botanical artist, Rayma Peterson, is one of three artists whose work is now on view at the Leighton Art Centre, Gallery and Museum. Sixteen of Rayma’s paintings capturing the plants of Alberta’s foothills, mountains, and wetlands in their native habitats will be on display through July 31, 2010. When asked how she documents plants in their natural environment, Rayma replied:

Exploring and botanizing in the spring, summer, and fall are my favorite activities. I look for close up scenes that almost jump out at me with their uniqueness and beauty, and try to share my visual experience of these scenes with the viewer. I want to show people the exquisite beauty that is underfoot in western Canada. I also take pains to ensure that the painting is botanically correct; that is, I only show plants growing together that would normally do so in a given habitat. I enjoy painting flowering plants, but also enjoy depicting their more humble relatives that may be easily overlooked, such as fungi, lichens, mosses, and even algae. My favorite habitats are calcareous springs and fens, foothills, grasslands, sub-alpine and alpine areas, wetlands, and tide pools.

I sometimes paint a habitat with my botanical subject prominent, and leave a white or very faint background towards the top. Thus I combine the habitat painting with the plant portrait to create my own style or genre. I will explore an area, taking extensive photographs, composing with my camera. Later in the studio, I combine elements and plants from various photographs, as long as they could be found in close proximity with each other in a microhabitat.

Rayma has a BSc. in botany and a BEd. in art and science. She has spent much of her life in the field, primarily in central and western Alberta. Her work is featured in Today’s Botanical Artists, by Cora B. Marcus and Libby Kyer (2008), as well as in Trees of Wagner Natural Area by the Wagner Natural Area Society, text by Patsy Cotterill (2010).

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