Explore the world of botanical art over five days July 15 – 19 in this course at Wellesley College Botanic Garden designed especially for you – the beginner. Sarah Roche (her work is shown below) guides your experience through structured exercises, projects, and demonstrations. She exposes you to the basic techniques and methods of botanical drawing and watercolor painting. Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Gardens $250, non-members $300. To register, visit www.wellesley.edu/wcbgfriends.
Using the Fruitlands Museum as a resource, we will study up close the Fruitlands collection of Hudson River School Paintings and then return to the classroom for a color mixing extravaganza, in this four week course beginning April 3 taught by Marjorie Glick. You’ll learn how to translate these mixes into glowing watercolors infused with light. Students will learn the various color combinations used by The Hudson River School to create their luminous skies. You will learn how to apply color through both mixing, glazing, and layering. Students will learn how to incorporate luminosity and light into their own work,subject matter, and style. it is necessary to have some experience in the medium of your choice. Instruction will focus on color mixing and seeing. Fruitlands members $130, nonmembers $150. Registration required. E-mail education@fruitlands.org or call 978.456.3924 x239.
In the tradition of the early naturalists and explorers, you will be learning about the natural world by drawing and writing, listening and discovering, using your very own hand-crafted nature journal, at this Boston Nature Center class on Saturday, November 3, from 10 – noon. You will explore the sanctuary, using journals to write about and draw trees, rocks, landscapes, plants, birds, and other interesting animals. You will learn to observe the natural world more closely by using writing and drawing to describe what you see. You will use pencil, pen, colored pencils, and even watercolor in our journals, so that you can prepare for your own continued exploration of the changing seasons.
Mass Audubon members: $7, non-members $9. Registration is required. Register online at www.massaudubon.org or call 617-983-8500 to register by phone. Image from www.homemadesimple.com.
Award winning wildlife artist Laurie Truehart of Royalston will offer a workshop at the Petersham Art Center to teach the art of bird woodcarving. Participants will work with the artist to create a chickadee, studying the basics of carving techniques, as well as proper use and care of carving tools. This intensive course will start Sunday, September 9, and proceed each Sunday through October 28th.
Laurie has been perfecting the art of carving for over a decade. Her intricate works are true to nature in every exacting detail, down to the feather count on a bird’s wing, yet capture the vibrant poses and flights of the smallest chickadee to the largest owl, swooping to its prey. She has competed in the prestigious Ward Museum World Championship competition in Maryland and the Canadian Wildfowl Carving Championship. Her work has been on display at numerous galleries, including locally at the Millers River Environmental Center and the Gardner Area League of Artists.
“I have always had a great appreciation for nature’s beauty. My inspirations come from both wild animals and those that I have had the pleasure of knowing,†says Laurie. “Living in Royalston has given me the opportunity to observe wildlife in their natural habitat and those first hand experiences now motivate my artistic expression. My carving includes a variety of wildlife forms, birds of prey, songbirds, and mammals. I like to capture the wild feeling of living forms by rendering them in motion and at rest.â€
The sessions are each Sunday, from 1-4PM, on September 9, 16, 23, 30 and October 7, 14, 21, and 28. The cost is $120 for PAC members and $135 for nonmembers. There is a materials fee for a wood bird blank and carving tools.
Call the Petersham Art Center at 978-724-3415 for more information. The Art Center is located off Rt. 32 near the center of Petersham. The Center is open from Wednesday through Sunday, from 1-4PM, for artists’ exhibitions, goods by local crafters and artisans, handmade jewelry and leather goods, books by local authors, antiques, and other treasures.
Learn from a local artist Anne Schmalz how to put to paper what you see in nature, on Tuesday, August 14, beginning at 5:30 pm. We’ll use the flora and fauna surrounding the river as our subject matter. Bring a folding chair, materials provided. Register at info@bostonnatural.org or 617-542-7696. Meet behind 1245 Adams Street, Dorchester Lower Mills, at the small riverside park behind Baker Square building.
The Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture will sponsor a great day of sketching on Tuesday, February 21, from 10 – 4, at the greenhouses at the Wellesley College Botanic Garden. Go on a fern foray with Elizabeth Farnsworth, illustrator and co-author of the Peterson Field Guide to the Ferns of Northeastern North America. Using the diverse fern collections of the Ferguson Greenhouses, explore fern anatomy, architecture, life cycle, ecology, and microscopic characteristics. See the features to look for when identifying ferns in the wild. There will be plenty of time for sketching ferns and their diagnostic characters, plus question-and-answer time about these amazing plants. Bring your lunch along with sketchbook and pencils or pens (whichever is your preferred medium for sketching), and colored pencils for recording various anatomical structures. Snow date will be Wednesday, February 22. WCFH members $75, non-members $95. Register on line at www.wellesley.edu/WCFH.
Explore the beauty and variety of plant forms using pencil, paper, watercolor, and colored pencil during adult drawing classes at the Harvard Museum of Natural History. Taught by artist and educator, Erica Beade, this four-week course will introduce botanical drawing techniques through close observation and practice with contour, gesture, foreshortening, shading and color. All skill levels are welcome. The four-week series meets November 5, 12, 19 and December 3, from 9:30 am to 11:30 am in the Harvard Museum of Natural History. (Please note: There will be no class on November 26.) $140 non-members; $126 members (10% discount) Class sizes are limited and advance registration is required. Call 617.495.2341 or email reservations@hmnh.harvard.edu. Payment confirms registration. You may cancel up to two weeks before class and receive a refund less a $30 fee. After that time, no refunds can be made. A full refund is issued if the Museum cancels the program.
Another fine drawing class will take place Friday, August 26 through Sunday, August 28, from 9:30 – 3:30, at the Wellesley College Botanic Garden. With Carol Ann Morley, learn to capture the layers and angles of leaves you observe in nature onto your paper. Start with the fundamentals of colored pencil, then work to give your drawing shape and movement by mixing color hues to create shadows, to make colors recede and advance, and to create harmony and contrast. The pigments in colored pencils can be applied to create many different effects including multiple delicate washes – making this skill-building class useful for watercolorists as well as pencil artists. $250.00 for WCFH members, $300 for non-members. Register by calling 781-283-3094, or log on to www.wellesley.edu/WCFH. Illustration by Carol Ann Morley.
This Berkshire Botanical Garden three day intensive workshop, from 10 – 4 on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, August 16, 17 and 18 will focus on colored pencil techniques for botanical illustration. Learn ways to create textured backgrounds with the brilliant hues of colored pencils. This versatile color medium can create colors smooth as glass and rough as sandpaper and by changing technique mimic an oil painting, pastel or watercolor. Discover which colors glow together and others that harmonize in a composition. Explore a full range of techniques for creating both bold and subtle effects that will bring a botanical drawing alive. Participants should bring a pear and other fruits or flowers to include in their illustrations. Bring a bag lunch and enjoy your meal in and around the garden.
Carol Ann Morley is an illustrator and dedicated teacher of botanical illustration working in Dover, NH. She founded the Botanical Art Illustration Certificate Program at the New York Botanical Garden and teaches illustration there and for other botanical gardens. This is Ms. Morley’s only workshop at the Berkshire Botanical Garden for 2011. To register on line ($195 for BBG members, $225 for nonmembers) log on to www.berkshirebotanical.org, or call 413-298-3926.
View the summer garden with an eye for color, mood, texture and painting in this series of classes at the Berkshire Botanical Garden beginning Tuesday, July 12, from 10 – 1, and continuing through Tuesday, August 2. Learn the basics of composition and color through the medium of watercolor. Each class will begin with explanation and demonstrations by the instructor. Most of each session will be devoted to painting with the instructor providing input and responding to questions. No prior experience is necessary and beginners are welcome. You may attend the whole series or pick and choose individual classes. However, everyone is encouraged to come to the first meeting when the basics of watercolor, paint, brushes and paper will be explained.
Instructor Ann Kremers is an artist and calligrapher. Her work is currently focused on watercolor and drawing media. She has received commissions for paintings, drawings, illustrated and calligraphic citations and awards, artist’s books and botanical drawings. Examples of her work can be viewed at www.annkremers.com. To register for the complete series ($145 BBG members, $175 nonmembers) or for each individual class ($45 for all), visit www.berkshirebotanical.org.
