ArtPlantae Today

Ferns, Exotic Plants & Botanical Art for Kids

May 20, 2014 by Tania Marien

Learn About Ferns This Summer

The 50th Annual Fern and Exotic Plant Show & Sale will be held in July this year.

Admire award-winning plants, learn about ferns and take some home too. Attend lectures and demonstrations and shop for ferns, exotic plants and other garden-related merchandise in the very popular marketplace. Opportunity drawings are held throughout the day on both days. Enter your name for a chance to win plants and related supplies.

This annual show and sale is hosted by the
Los Angeles International Fern Society and will be located in and around Ayres Hall at the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden. Click on the image to download the flyer. Share this post with fellow gardeners and fern enthusiasts.

ArtPlantae will be in the marketplace again this year. Hands-on activities, botanical art coloring book for kids and more. See you there!

Visit the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden

Posted in botanical art, botanical art books, Education, general botany, Learning Opportunities, Special Announcements, Special Events |

The California Garden That Wasn’t

May 9, 2014 by Tania Marien

Did you know there was once a movement to create a large botanical garden in metropolitan Los Angeles?

The Kew Royal Botanic Gardens uncovered records and letters about this garden in their archives and writes about the garden on their website. They tell the story of California naturalists who started a non-profit organization and who purchased 3,200 acres of land in the Santa Monica Mountains. The organization planned to use 800 acres to create a public garden and research center. The remaining 2,400 acres were to be sold as residential property. The proceeds were to fund the garden.

Called the “California Botanic Garden”, the garden opened in 1928. The stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression forced the garden closed in 1935. The garden and the surrounding land was sold and both were eventually enveloped into what is now L.A.’s Brentwood community.

What happened to all the plants?
Find out in The Forgotten Garden on Kew’s website.

You Might Also Enjoy This from the Teaching & Learning Archves
Public Perception of Botanical Gardens

Reminder: The weekly teaching & learning column is on a brief publishing break. This break will continue through June.
In the meantime, I hope you enjoy revisiting selected articles.

Posted in Education, general botany, History, Learning Opportunities, Teaching & Learning |

Food, Wine & Botanical Art Too

May 9, 2014 by Tania Marien

It’s May and this means it’s time for Primavera in the Garden, Riverside’s popular food and wine event. Held each year at the 40-acre botanical garden on the campus of UC Riverside, a portion of the proceeds supports UCR Botanic Gardens and its staff.

Enjoy a Spring afternoon in the garden, discover plein air art, learn about botanical art, and enjoy wonderful pairings of food and wine. Tickets are available online before the event for $65 each and will be available at the gate on the day of the event for $75 each. A tram will bring visitors from the parking lot to the garden. Tram service is free. University parking costs $5.

I would like to personally thank the following local businesses for their help in bringing attention to Primavera. They allowed me to place posters or bookmarks at their store or restaurant. Their support is appreciated.

Inland Empire readers, would you like to help spread the news about Primavera and support one of your local botanical gardens?

Click on the image below to download the flyer and share it with family, friends and colleagues. Thank you.

Download flyer

Posted in Art, botanical art, Education, Special Announcements, Special Events |

Following in the Bartrams’ Footsteps ….. The Book

May 8, 2014 by Tania Marien

Now Available, $29.99

The American Society of Botanical Artists has released the catalog for the traveling exhibition Following in the Bartrams’ Footsteps: Contemporary Botanical Artists Explore the Bartrams’ Legacy.

Father and son, John and William Bartram, were two of the first American naturalists. They are credited with introducing the flora of North America to the field of horticulture. Learn about the history of these early explorers and their contributions to horticulture and science in this new catalog.

This 124-page catalog features 46 drawings, etchings and paintings by forty contemporary botanical artists. It also contains the following:

Preface by Sir Peter Crane

John and William Bartram – American Natural History Artists
Joel Fry, Curator, Bartram’s Garden, Philadelphia

John and William Bartram’s Explorations
Brad Sanders

Following in the Bartrams’ Footsteps
Patricia Jonas

Artists & Artwork:

William Alberti – Scarlet Hibiscus
Bobbi Angell – Shooting Star
Karen Coleman – Bartram’s Acorns
Wendy Cortesi – Sassafras and Spicebush Swallowtail
Susan Curnutte – Switchgrass
Estelle DeRidder – Fuller’s Teasel
Carrie DiCostanzo – Cockscomb
Beverly Duncan – Bartram’s Seedlings #2; Bartram’s Seeds
Margaret Farr – Love-in-a-Mist
Ingrid Finnan – Eastern Redbud
Maria Cecilia Freeman – Cherokee Rose
Lara Call Gastinger – Collected Mosses
Joan Lavigueur Geyer – Lyre-leaved Sage
Carole Gorin – Spanish Moss on Laurel Oak Branch
Carol E. Hamilton – Yellow Pond Lily
Gillian Harris – Toadshades
Wendy Hollender – Echinacea
Rose Marie James – Morning Glory
Heeyoung Kim – Green Dragon in Fall
Ku-mie Kim – Indian Woodoats
Barbara Klaas – Smooth Sumac
Karen Kluglein – Bartram’s Franklinia
Jee-Yeon Koo – Spotted Beebalm
Kay Kopper – Pitch Pine
Dianne McElwain – American Lotus
Rhonda Nass – Foxglove
Derek Norman – The Complete Life Cycle of the Wild Leek; Large-flowered Bellwort
Sharron O’Neil – American Mountain Ash
George Olson – Prairie Dock
Dick Rauh – 12 Pine Cones; Franklinia Capsules
Betsy Rogers-Knox – Forest FLoor; Wild Cucumber
Maryann Roper – Beautyberry
Lizzie Sanders – Spiderwort
Judith Simon – Indian Pink
Judy Thomas – Paw Paw
Louisa Rawle Tiné – Silky Dogwood
Melissa Toberer – Rose Mallow
Jeannetta vanRaalte – Turk’s Cap Lily
Catherine Watters – American Persimmon
Carol Woodin – Greater Purple-fringed Orchid

Purchase Catalog

Posted in botanical art, botanical art books, Education, Learning Opportunities, Special Announcements |

Historic Catesby Prints at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden

May 8, 2014 by Tania Marien

Naturalist and artist, Mark Catesby, created the first illustrated record of the plants and animals of North America. His field notes and observations are recorded in The Natural History of Carolina, Florida & the Bahama Islands. Only fifty facsimile copies exist. To mark the 300th anniversary of Catesby’s arrival to the New World, 20 sets of his landmark text have been published and bound by Addison Publications, the publisher who also published Prince Charles’
Highgrove Florilegium.

Learn more about the special limited edition of The Natural History of Carolina, Florida & the Bahama Islands.

Will you be visiting Richmond, VA this month?

Fifteen images from the first facsimile edition of Catesby’s Birds, Beasts, Fishes, Serpents, Insects & Plants (1712-1726) are now on view in the library at
Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond, VA. Normally stored in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle, these remarkable works about the natural history of North America will be on view through June 1, 2014.

Birds, Beasts, Fishes, Serpents, Insects & Plants (1712-1726)
Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden
April 24 – June 1, 2014
Hours & Directions

Posted in Education, Learning Opportunities, nature, Special Announcements, Special Events |

Botanical Art Exhibition Opens This Month at ‘The Highlands’

May 6, 2014 by Tania Marien

By Philadelphia Society of Botanical Illustrators

©2014 Pat Field, Lilium tigrinum (Tiger Lily). AllRightsReserved

The exhibition of botanical art at
The Highlands in Fort Washington, PA celebrates the many plants and flowers found in its historic Sinkler Garden. The two-acre formal garden was first created in 1840 and expanded in the 1920s by Caroline Sinkler. The list of specimens in the Garden covers nearly 20 densely packed pages. From this extensive list, the Philadelphia Society of Botanical Illustrators (PSBI) selected 35 specimens to honor in their paintings. Paintings were created on paper, vellum and mylar using watercolor, acrylic and colored pencil.

Featured in the exhibition is the tiger lily (Lilium tigrinum) by Pat Field, shown above. This is only one of the 13 lilies grown in the 1920 Sinkler Garden. Pat Field also painted a red iris (Iris germanica, one of 28 varieties in the Garden). Other featured paintings include the parrot tulip (Tulipa sp.) by Linda Kneeland; the red hot poker
(Kniphofia uvaria) by Joan Frain; and Glory of the Snow (Chionodoxa siehei) by Carol Ashton-Hergenhan.

The gardens and grounds of The Highlands are open to the public from dawn to dusk throughout the year. Admission is free. The PSBI exhibition will be on view inside the historic mansion May 22-29, 2014.

Hours: 11 AM – 3 PM weekdays; 1-4 PM weekends and Memorial Day

Admission: $5 for adults, $4 for seniors, and $3 for children

Visit The Highlands

Posted in botanical art, Education, Learning Opportunities, Special Announcements, Special Events |

Year-long Botanical Art Programs at Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods

May 6, 2014 by Tania Marien

Botanical artist and educator of America’s prairies, Heeyoung Kim, has announced two new botanical art programs. Both will be taught at the Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods in Riverwoods, Illinois.

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

Heeyoung Kim
www.prairieplantart.com
Heeyoung Kim is a botanical artist whose illustrations and paintings of American prairie plants have graced posters, postcards and exhibition catalogs. Heeyoung is passionate about documenting prairie plants and brings attention to the fragile state of America’s prairies by exhibiting her work in national and international exhibitions. Learn More

Monday Botanical Art Workshops

To view course schedule and pricing, go to www.heeyoungkim.com.

To register, contact Heeyoung Kim or call 847-903-7348.

Saturday Botanical Art Workshops
3rd and 4th Saturdays, July 2014 – June 2015
10 AM – 4 PM
Similar contents from Monday workshops are adapted appropriately for shorter session focusing on more basic elements.

To view course schedule and pricing, go to www.heeyoungkim.com.

To register, contact Heeyoung Kim or call 847-903-7348.