ArtPlantae Today

Paint the Orchids of Sri Lanka

October 26, 2009 by Tania Marien

Botanical artist Marianne McPhie invites you to …

ORCHIDS & TEMPLES
A botanical painting holiday on a tropical island

February 7-13, 2010 and February 14-20, 2010 in Sri Lanka

Discover the delights of this beautiful tropical island and paint exquisite orchids that are to be found nowhere else in the world. Sri Lanka is home to more than 170 species of orchids, and a stunning 74 of these are unique to its shores.

Join me this February and spend 6 nights in the tranquil setting of Moonhill, a spacious and elegant beach villa on Sri Lanka’s southern coast, where I’ll be tutoring two orchid painting courses.

This is the perfect holiday for painters and non-painters alike. Swimming from quiet beaches is a short stroll away, and you may have the opportunity to see rare orchids growing in the wild on an excursion to the rainforest, with its extraordinary wealth of birds, animals and flowering plants.

All levels are welcome on the 4-day course as the small group size (max 6) ensures individual tuition and guidance.

Go to PaintSriLanka.com to find out more about the course and the optional tours you can combine with your orchid painting holiday.

About Marianne McPhie

Marianne is a botanical artist who teaches classes year-round in Southwell, Nottinghamshire. Marianne has a degree in Art History and writes about botanical art for magazines. Her website can be viewed at www.mariannemcphie.co.uk.

Posted in Learning Opportunities |

Techniques in Graphite, Colored Pencil, & Watercolor at Lasdon Arboretum

October 26, 2009 by Tania Marien

Updates at CLASSES NEAR YOU > NEW YORK:

Lasdon Park and Arboretum
Lasdon Park Brochure
Located in Somers, NY, the 234-acre Lasdon Arboretum is home to the botanical art program directed by botanical artist Corinne Lapin-Cohen. Teaching in partnership with Corinne is Laura Gould. Laura is a botanical artist and graphic designer whose primary medium is colored pencil. The classes below represent the types of learning opportunities available through the program at Lasdon. Check the current schedule for details and to obtain a registration form.

Drawing & Colored Pencil – Saturdays, November 7 – December 19, 2009. Beginners through advanced students work together in this class while receiving individual attention from instructor Laura Gould.
Colored Pencil – Wednesday mornings, November 4 – December 16, 2009. Practice and refine your skills with colored pencil artist, Laura Gould. This class is for experienced students.
Drawing I and Painting – Not offered this term. With an eye on scientific accuracy, detail, texture, contrast and composition, instructor Corinne Lapin-Cohen will help you improve your drawing or painting skills and help you develop your individual style.
Intermediate/Advanced Watercolor – Thursday mornings, November 5 – December 17, 2009. Add complexity to your botanical paintings with attention to texture, detail and color accuracy. Develop your own style while working on individual projects under the watchful eye of Corinne Lapin-Cohen.

Posted in Learning Opportunities |

Exhibition Celebrates Forty-Year Career

October 26, 2009 by Tania Marien

Botanical illustrator, Roberta Rosenthal, is celebrating her wonderful career as an artist in a special solo exhibition at the New Windsor Art Gallery in New Windsor, NY. The official announcement follows:

"Black Dirt Harvest", watercolor pencil and watercolor, 24" x 30" © Roberta Rosenthal

THE FORTIETH RETROSPECTIVE EXHIBITION ON
ROBERTA ROSENTHAL’S SIXTIETH YEAR
October 18 – November 30, 2009

The New Windsor Art Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibit with a selection of sixty-six paintings from forty years of work by Roberta Rosenthal. Roberta, currently works and lives in Sullivan County, New York. Rosenthal has worked in a variety of mediums including pencil, sumi-e ink, watercolor, gouache, acrylic, pastel and oils. Her subjects span botanical, landscape, abstract and illustrative concepts. Rosenthal’s forty year professional career encompasses graphic design, logo design, textile design and botanical illustration. Her paintings cross the mysterious line between commercial applications to fine art. Her paintings have been commissioned, published, exhibited and collected internationally. Rosenthal’s botanical pen and ink editorial illustrations were published in the Gardening section of the New York Times Newspaper between the 1980’s -1990’s.

Rosenthal has been teaching art in the Catskill and Hudson Valley region for a decade and twenty-three years at the New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY. Her sumi-e and botanical art workshops are offered nationally. Rosenthal won the Bethlehem Art Gallery Award for Painting for her botanical painting of Iwanagara Cattleya Orchid at “Artists on the Campus,” Mount Saint Mary College, Newburgh, NY on June 7, 2009. A festive reception was held on October 18th from 3 – 7 PM. The exhibition is free to the public. The paintings are for sale, giclee prints made at New Windsor Gallery can be ordered percentage of sales benefits local Community Centers. Rosenthal will be at the gallery on Saturday, November 14, 2009, to sign copies of her Sumi-e Brush Painting Techniques Workbook, sign gicleé prints and answer questions about her work from 12 PM – 3 PM.

They Teach Too

October 26, 2009 by Tania Marien

Earlier this year, the industry magazine Publisher’s Weekly announced the creation of the first annual National Bookstore Day. This event has been created to celebrate the culture of independent bookstores and the services they provide for their customers. This special celebration will occur on Saturday November 7, 2009.

We encourage you to acknowledge your favorite bookstores and booksellers next month, whether they are located in your town, at your favorite outdoor marketplace, at your favorite vacation destination, or online. Booksellers are an intelligent, passionate, and hard-working group of individuals tirelessly committed to their communities, their customers, and an almost impossible low-margin industry.

Think about what you’ve learned from your favorite bookseller, how much you’ve enjoyed speaking with him or her, and how your corner of the world would be less vibrant if they were not present.

There is more to the literary world than the dirt cheap, disposable bestsellers that have been in the news. There is brain food of the highest quality to satisfy any craving. It is time to acknowledge those who generously plate up this brain food with you and your interests in mind. On November 7th, visit or contact the booksellers who have done so much for you and wish them “Happy National Bookstore Day”.

Posted in Special Announcements |

Stirring Botanical Art in ‘Botanica Magnifica’

October 19, 2009 by Tania Marien

BotanicaMagnifica_sm In the Introduction of Botanica Magnifica: Portraits of the World’s Most Extraordinary Flowers & Plants, Marc Hachadourian, the Curator of Glasshouse Collections at New York Botanical Garden, discusses the centuries-old association between science and art, citing specifically the relationship between a botanist and an artist. He explains that photographer Jonathan M. Singer, inspired by early botanical artists such as Walter Hood Fitch, Basil Besler, and Franz Bauer, as well as contemporary botanical artists Pandora Sellars, Anne Farrer, and Celia Rosser, set out to develop a digital photography technique that would capture a viewer’s emotions through lighting and detail and surpass “the capability of brush and paint.”

Singer has definitely accomplished his objective. Botanica isn’t simply a book of nice photographs that you browse through. It is a collection of plant portraits that pulls viewers into each image to study what is there. The act of browsing never crosses your mind. Singer’s portraits make you pause and make you feel compelled to experience the graceful movement of petals, the fragility of exposed stamen, the withering of a style past its prime, the order of patterns, the density of spines, and the beauty of dissected leaves.

The baby elephant folio of Botanica Magnifica is comprised of five volumes. Each volume begins with a foreword by either Marc Hachadourian or W. John Kress who is the Curator of Botany and Research Scientist at the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institute. Each volume ends with an appendix of large thumbnails featuring the plants in a given volume, along with a caption detailing each plant’s place of origin, its unique characteristics, and/or its history. The five volumes in this collection are:

Orchidaceae – A collection of representatives in the orchid family, with a forward providing an overview of this plant family.
Florilegium – A diverse collection of flower images, with a foreword about the evolution of plants.
Proteus – A collection of plant forms with a foreword about plant adaptations and plant diversity.
Zingiberaceae – A tribute to the ginger family.
Botanicus – A collection of flowers and plants collected or being studied by Smithsonian botanists.

This magnificent collection of plant portraits is the work of podiatrist Jonathan Singer, whose lifelong interest in photography became more of a central focus in his life when he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. View an interview with Singer on CBS News by clicking on the link below. In this interview, you will also see the large double elephant folio of Botanica Magnifica that is now in the rare book collection at the Smithsonian.

Would you like to view a copy of Botanica Magnifica yourself? ArtPlantae will be displaying a copy of Singer’s work at The Women’s Conference on October 26-27, 2009. Orders for the baby elephant edition of this book will be taken at this time. This book can also be ordered online at ArtPlantae Books. The special pre-publication price of $135 has been extended. The post-publication price for Botanica Magnifica will be $185.

Abbeville Press has announced a book tour for Botanica Magnifica and The Weeping Goldsmith a book by W. John Kress. Check the Abbeville Press website for complete details. As of this moment, the touring schedule looks like this:

Sunday, November 1, 2009 – Westwood Art Gallery, Westwood, NJ
Saturday, November 7, 2009 – Denver Botanic Garden, Denver, CO
Monday, November 9, 2009 – Collected Works Bookstore, Santa Fe, NM
Wednesday, November 18, 2009 – Alabama Booksmith (Sponsored by the Birmingham Botanical Garden), Birmingham, AL
Friday, March 19, 2010 – Chicago Botanic Garden, Chicago, IL
Thursday, May 13, 2010 – Garden Club of America Annual Conference, New Brunswick, NJ

More Than Just Pretty Pictures in Curtis’s Magazine

October 19, 2009 by Tania Marien

Originally published in the February 2007 issue of Artists’ Botany, this article has been freshened up with updated links.

Cheiranthus flavus (Wallflower) by Pierre Joseph Redouté

In publication since 1787, Curtis’s Botanical Magazine is best known in botanical art circles for the artwork contained within its pages. The artwork, however, should not overshadow the scientific information contained in each issue. Detailed descriptions of each featured plant are called “plant portraits.” Portraits can contain information about a plant’s cultivation, its taxonomic history, its historical uses, its habitat, its conservation status, plus a lot more. If you have not browsed through an issue of this journal, you can view article abstracts online. In the ArtPlantae Science Library, you will find the following issues: Volume 20 (2003) – Volume 25 (2008). Descriptions of the contents of each issue can be viewed in the Journals section of the Science Library.

The image of a wallflower is from Redouté Flowers and Fruits, a CD-ROM and book containing permission-free images.

Posted in botanical art, Science Library |

Desert Wildflower Class for Botanists & Artists

October 19, 2009 by Tania Marien

Registration is now open for Botanical Illustration of Desert Flora, a weekend field class taught through UC Riverside’s Extension program. This class will be held at the Desert Studies Center at Soda Springs. For you California locals who know the road to Las Vegas well, you’ll be taking the Zzyzx exit off Highway 15. This seemingly “road to nowhere” leads to a research center managed by CSU Fullerton. It’s a great place. Simple, quiet, and comfortable. By “simple”, I mean in a grad student sort of way. Never mind, though. It’s a special place to all who have stayed there over the years. Check your shoes, bring sunscreen, never part with your water, and read the Safety instructions. Enjoy!

University of California, Riverside
Botanical Illustration of Desert Flora (Art X454.5)
UC Riverside Extension
Instructor: Donald Davidson
April 9-11, 2010
Friday (8 PM – 10 PM), Saturday (8 AM – 5 PM), Sunday (8 AM – 4 PM)
Learn techniques in pencil, pen, and watercolor while sketching in the Mojave Desert at the Desert Studies Center at Soda Springs (aka Zzyzx). Practice drawing and composition skills that will enhance your understanding of form and function. Learn how to identify native plants.

This course has also been posted to CLASSES NEAR YOU > CALIFORNIA.