Boston Flora

Month: May 2015

  • Saturday and Sunday, May 30 – 31, 10:00 am – 4:00 PM – Flowering Shrubs and Trees: Botanical Drawing and Painting

    This Tower Hill Botanic Garden two-day workshop on May 30 – 31 is all about textures: woody stems, shiny leaves, and delicate petals. Artist/illustrator Helen Byers will guide you through the challenges of rendering each in different media. See what beautiful and detailed effects you can achieve, working in layers with either colored pencil or dry-brush watercolor. Try both techniques, or explore what your favorite can do. All levels welcome; some drawing experience helpful.

    Helen Byers is an artist, writer, editor, and educator with a background in literary and educational publishing. Her drawings and paintings have been exhibited in solo and group shows in the West and East and are held in various private collections. Her illustration credits include six children’s books and six literary book covers. Her teaching of art has included courses and workshops in botanical drawing and painting, watercolor painting, figure sketching, still-life drawing, and field sketching. $110 for THBG members, $130 for nonmembers. Register online at www.towerhillbg.org, or call 508-869-6111.

     

  • Saturday, May 30, 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Green Spaces: Paintings from Olmsted’s Parks

    The Emerald Necklace Conservancy will present an exhibit of watercolor and gouache paintings by artist Lynette Lombard titled Green Spaces: Paintings from Olmsted’s Parks.  The exhibit will be mounted in the Shattuck Visitor Center, 125 The Fenway, and will be on view Saturdays and Sundays beginning May 3 from 11 – 4.  An artist reception and talk will be held on Saturday, May 30, from 2 – 4, and is free and open to the public.  In her artist statement, Lynette writes that, while painting on site during the summer of 2014, “I was struck by the variety of Olmsted’s visual rhythms and serpentine movements to create paths of light and dark, which weave a drama in my work.” She received her MFA from Yale University School of Art and is a Professor of Art at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois.  For more information contact info@emeraldnecklace.org, or call 617-522-2700.

  • Sunday, May 3, 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm – A Walk with Mr. Olmsted Through the Historic Back Bay Fens

    See the Back Bay Fens through the eyes of the man who designed and built it.  Join Frederick Law Olmsted, as portrayed by Gerry Wright, along with an Emerald Necklace docent, as they lead a walk through the historic landscape on Sunday, May 3.  Learn how Mr. Olmsted transformed an area described by a 19th century city engineer as “The foulest marsh and muddy flats to be found anywhere in Massachusetts” into the first link in his chain of parks we know today as the Emerald Necklace.  Hear the story of a remarkable life from the man himself. Meet at 1 pm at the Shattuck Visitor Center, 125 The Fenway.  Free and open to the public, presented by the Emerald Necklace Conservancy.

  • Tuesday, May 12, 7:30 pm – Ant Plant Mutualisms

    May’s meeting of the Cambridge Entomological Club will be held Tuesday May 12th at 7:30 PM in room 101 of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Oxford Street, Cambridge. John Boyle of Harvard University and President of Cambridge Entomological Club will be presenting the 2015 Presidential Address and telling us about Ant Plant Mutualisms. Please note this is the last meeting until October.

    Mutualistic symbioses between ants and plants are a common feature of the tropics. Hundreds of different plants throughout the world have evolved cavities in which ant colonies can live, and even special organs that provide food for the ants. In return, the ants protect their trees against the encroachment of other plants and against herbivores–even herbivores as large as giraffe and elephant!

    In John’s talk for the CEC, he will present some of the diversity of ant-plant mutualisms, and also discuss his own research into one particular ant-plant, the whistling-thorn acacia, Vachellia drepanolobium. This ant-plant is unusual in that four different ant species compete for space on the tree, and all four ant species appear to cheat on the tree in different ways: some prune off its flowers, others tend sap-sucking scale insects, and so on. He will discuss his research on the colony-level underpinnings of this wide diversity in ant behavior.The meeting is free and open to the public. Snacks will be provided and you are also welcome to join us at 6:00 pm for an informal pre-meeting dinner at Cambridge Common.  Image from www.baraza.wildlifedirect.org.

  • Tuesdays, May 5 – May 26, 12:00 noon – Preservation is U

    A special midday tour series will take place every Tuesday, May 5 – May 26 at noon, as part of the City of Boston’s 2015 Preservation Month.  Long celebrated as the Athens of America, Boston is home to more than 2 dozen colleges, universities, and professional schools.  Not surprisingly, these institutions number among their campuses many architecturally significant properties.  Often converted for academic use rather than originally planned for that purpose, these buildings run the aesthetic gamut from Gothic to Art Deco, and include distinguished works by architects both famous and obscure.

    But what makes these properties so attractive to institutions?  With vacant city land always at a premium and new construction hardly a bargain, colleges recognize that the superior design, materials and workmanship of historic structures make them ideal candidates for adaptive reuse.  Smart university administrators understand that whether converted to classrooms or offices, residence halls or performance spaces, old buildings have many decades of useful life ahead of them.  And they have learned that they can ask for no more enthusiastic partners in this effort than our historic commissions and the resourceful professionals who staff them.

    Concentrated in central Boston, the historic buildings now owned by Boston University, Emerson College, Northeastern University and Suffolk University reflect a common appreciation for the city’s built heritage: both as the vessel of a storied past, and as a vehicle to an exciting future.  We’ll be exploring many of the best examples in a month-long series of lunch hour walks we’re calling Preservation is U. Please join the Boston Landmarks Commission each Tuesday in May for an informal graduate course in this familiar but seldom-considered aspect of Boston’s architectural record.

    May 5 – Downtown Boston.  Elizabeth Stifel, Boston Landmarks Commission Staff Architect. Contact elizabeth.stifel@boston.gov today to reserve a place.

    May 12 – Beacon Hill.  Erin Doherty, Beacon Hill Architectural Commission Staff, and Joe Bagley, City Archaeologist. Contact erin.doherty@boston.gov before May 8 to reserve a place.

    May 19 – South End. Meghan Hanrahan Richard, South End Landmark District Commission Staff.  Contact meghan.hanrahan@boston.gov before May 15 to reserve a place.

    May 26 – Bay State Road. William Young, Director of Design Review. Contact william.young@boston.gov before May 22 to reserve a space.

  • Sunday, May 17, 9:00 am – 6:00 pm – Spring Into Fiber! Food!! Faults!!!

    The exclamation points are not ours, but the Pioneer Valley Institute is offering a bus tour on Sunday, May 17, from 9 – 6, which may be of interest to our readers. Take an expedition to the Green Mountain Spinnery, a worker-owned cooperative spinning mill which not only creates its own selection of yarns and patterns but also is used by many New England fiber producers. Lunch will be at the nearby and justifiably famous Curtis’ All American Bar-B-Q in Putney VT. (There are alternatives for vegetarians just across the road at the Putney Food Co-op.) Great yarns and fabulous food. Now, fortified with plenty of yarn and sated with ribs or chicken we will proceed to the Chesterfield New Hampshire Gorge for a hike to explore the faux faults found there. For your next fiber project, be inspired by nature’s rich color palette and geological wonders. As you hike the path witness cascades as they disappear into the midst, while others plunge down through the gorge to the pools below.  See the PVI brochure for enrollment details. $35 per person.  Website: www.gcc.mass.edu/pvi .