Wild Wonder presents an online class on March 1 from 12:30 – 2:30 Eastern time with John Muir Laws entitled Learn to Draw and Paint Flowers. Registration for the live presentation may be found at https://www.wildwonder.org/events.
John will share his best tips and tricks for drawing and painting flowers learned through his 40 years of teaching and illustrating.
In this July 12 workshop at the Art + Science in the Field studio at 53 East Street in Petersham, Massachusetts, we will use graphite pencil, ink pen, and color pencil to learn accurate drawing techniques for microscopic images. Microscope is 8x to 320x and we will capture your images with photos and work from those. We will have a wide array of natural materials to choose from including botany slides, insect wings, seeds, mushroom spores, etc. You might want to explore Brooks Woodland Preserve across the street before the workshop, to collect biological materials to draw. Parking for the workshop is available along the roadside across the street on East Street, and also along Oliver Street.
No previous experience required and all materials provided. However, it will be helpful to bring a laptop if you have one. We will capture microscopic images and you can draw from those visual references on your computer screen.
Instructor Nancy Lowe is an artist, naturalist and eductor. If you have questions, email sciencecandance@gmail.com. $75. Register through Eventbrite HERE
Pen and ink, among the most versatile and useful media, can be used to create high quality, easily reproducible drawings. Learn how to produce different strokes and how to create tone by using stipple, line, and crosshatch techniques. Carol Ann Morley will present a six part class, online, for the New York Botanic Garden Prerequisite: Botanical Drawing II or equivalent. Please note, this course requires the purchase of materials. Please refer to the materials list on the registration page for more information. NYBG members $460, nonmembers $505. Click HERE for complete schedule and information.
Explore the world of botanical art in this Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Gardens course designed especially for the beginner. Sarah Roche guides you through structured exercises, projects and demonstrations, exposing you to the basic techniques of botanical drawing and watercolor painting. The four day class will be held at the Wellesley Community Center Monday through Wednesday, June 4-6, from 9:30 – 3:30, and on Thursday , June 7, from 9:30 – 12:30. Friends price $250, nonmembers $300. Register on line at www.wellesley.edu/wcbg/learn
Mary O’Malley’s work begins with a fascination with nature, combined with a love of pattern, decoration, and ornamentation. In this series, she explores pollinating species, from hummingbirds to moths, bees to beetles, as well as other beneficial insects and the plants they pollinate. Many pollinator species are threatened with extinction, which will have deep and troubling consequences to biodiversity and our own sustainability. O’Malley depicts the pollinators and plants enshrined in golden grids that recall religious altars, expressing a reverence for these essential creatures that are so vital to our ecosystem, and ultimately, our survival.
Mary O’Malley’s primary medium is drawing. Inspired by forms and patterns in nature, her work is characterized by intricate detail and a labor-intensive process that becomes a meditative experience for both artist and viewer. O’Malley graduated from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1997. In 2005, she received her Master of Fine Arts degree from the School of Visual Arts in New York. She has an extensive exhibition history, including shows at the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park in Lincoln, MA, the Fitchburg Art Museum in Fitchburg, MA, as well as at galleries in Boston, New York, and Los Angeles. Her work has been included twice in the juried publication, New American Paintings. She is the recipient of multiple grants, including two Massachusetts Cultural Council grants and the St. Botolph Club Grant-in-Aid Award. In 2010, her work was acquired by the United States Embassy in Dubai, as part of the Art in Embassies program. Currently, her work can be found at Walker Contemporary in Vermont and 13 Forest Gallery in Arlington, MA. She lives and works on the Seacoast of New Hampshire, not far from the ocean.
Visit Tower Hill Botanic Garden’s Alice Milton Gallery now through May 13 to view Mary O’Malley’s exhibit, free with admission. For more information visit http://towerhillbg.org
In this two-day Tower Hill Botanic Garden weekend workshop, late-fall seedpods and colorful gourds will be your inspiration as botanical artist / illustrator Helen Byers demonstrates how to draw and paint them using colored pencils. The class will take place Saturday and Sunday, November 9 and 10, from 11 – 4, and costs $90 for THBG members, $100 for nonmembers.
Instruction will cover detailed drawing in layers, using regular and water-based colored pencils. You’ll be surprised by the luminous results! All levels welcome. To register, call 508-869-6111, or visit www.towerhillbg.org.
Weston Nurseries and the Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Gardens will again partner to bring you the opportunity to study with experienced instructor Jeanne Kuntz on four successive Saturdays, September 7 – 24, from 10 – noon, surrounded by the newest Weston Nurseries’ world class garden center. You will increase your awareness of and appreciation for plants via the drawing experience. If you can write your name, you already have some basic drawing skills. Gain confidence and develop your ability to draw what you see. The site is at 160 Pine Hill Road in Chelmsford, the cost is $100 for WCBG Friends, $125 for the general public. Sign up by calling 781-283-3094, or emailing wcbgfriends@wellesley.edu. Below is a photo of cacti from Weston Nurseries – let’s draw!
This Berkshire Botanical Garden intensive workshop will focus on colored-pencil techniques for botanical illustration. Learn ways to create textured backgrounds and colors smooth as glass or rough as sandpaper. This versatile medium can be used to mimic an oil painting, pastel or watercolor. 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. Click here for Materials List.
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 summer workshop in the Berkshires for 2013.
This is a 3-day class: August 14, 15 and 16, 10 – 4 at Berkshire Botanical Garden. BBG member price $260, nonmembers $290. Bring a bag lunch. Register on line at www.berkshirebotanical.org, or call 413-298-3926.
Draw the beauty of seeds, including pods, nuts, fruits and cones, and investigate the amazing variety of nature’s bounty. Discover the features and texture of these objects while building your drawing skills. This is a great Berkshire Botanical Garden class for beginners or more advanced students who get ‘stuck’ drawing. Learn to solve this problem and develop your drawing step by step, from sketch to finished nature drawing. There will be exercises in: training the eye through quick sketching; drawing plants in proportion; the essentials of perspective; and applying tonal values for visual depth. Whether your love is quick field sketching or rendering plant portraits, this inspiring class will give you confidence to draw and train you to look at nature more closely.
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. The classes take place Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, March 20, 21, and 22, from 10 – 4, and cost $260 for BBG members, $290 for nonmembers. Sign up at www.berkshirebotanical.org.
Spend three days, Friday, June 10 – Sunday, June 12 studying conifers with the effervescent plant guru Dick Rauh. He begins with the architecture and how to look for such things as the differences in the branching patterns, leaf forms, and cones. Working both outdoors and in the classroom, he shows you how to apply observational and sketching techniques to the broader field of nature-sketching. Using technical pens (pen and ink) on watercolor paper, learn eye-to-hand rendering for both the entire tree as well as its parts. Drawing experience required. The class, at the Wellesley College Botanic Garden in Wellesley, will run from 9:30 – 3:30 each day, and costs $250 for Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture members, and $300 for non-members. To register, log on to www.wellesley.edu/WCFH, or call 781-283-3094, ext. 4. The white pine study below by Betsy Gray Bell is available for purchase at www.fineartamerica.com.
