Tag: Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Gardens

  • Fridays, June 13, 20 & 27, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm – Field Sketching Techniques

    Carol Govan (see work below) encourages you to achieve your own “voice” by getting comfortable with drawing techniques, especially for field sketching.  Increase your accuracy, speed, and familiarity with the fastest way to achieve the correct color of an object.  Learn how to apply tone to create a three dimensional object no matter what light you have and get that same dimension with color.  Homework is to draw for a short time every day.  This three day class, to be held Fridays, June 13, 20 & 27 from 9:30 am – 12:30 pm at the Wellesley College Botanic Gardens, is offered by the Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Gardens and the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University.  Members of the sponsoring organizations will pay $90, non-members $115.  To register call 781-283-3094, or email wcbgfriends@wellesley.edu.

    http://www.ashlandfarmersmarket.org/sites/default/files/images/22_Abandoned%20Parking%20Lot.jpg

  • Tuesdays, June 3 – June 24, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm – 50 Shades of Grey (and White)

    Painting a white subject involves showing nuances of color and value without getting too dark.  Explore painting the shadows and leaving the highlights to describe the form – using many more than fifty shades and hues of grey.  In this Wellesley College Botanic Gardens class, to be held on Tuesdays, June 3 – 24 from 9:30 – 12:30, Sarah Roche helps you investigate the potential of your palette to create complex greys and compose a delicate, sensitive study.  Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Gardens fee is $150, non-members $200.  Register by calling 781-283-3094, or email wcbgfriends@wellesley.edu. Image of white lilac from www.etsy.com.

     

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  • Wednesday, April 16, 1:00 pm – Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens: An Armchair Visit

    Experience a photo tour of this fabulous plant paradise in Boothbay, Maine, with garden designer and Wellesley College Botanic Garden Friends docent Maureen Bovet on Wednesday, April 16, at 1 pm.  Maureen returns to this garden by the sea as often as possible.  Opened in 2007 after 16 years of planning, the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens offers visitors stunning beauty and intimate experiences as it enhances the botanical heritage and natural landscapes of its 250 acres in coastal Maine.  CMGB Director Bill Cullina describes it best with the subtitle of his book about the garden: “A People’s Garden.”  Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Gardens – free; nonmembers $10. Register by calling 781-283-3094, or email wcbgfriends@wellesley.edu. Image below from the Garden Club of the Back Bay’s favorite photographer Rich Pomerantz.

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  • Saturday, April 19, 9:30 am – 3:30 pm – Unlocking the Mystery

    The Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Gardens invite you to enjoy an opportunity to indulge your artist’s eye as you browse through images of well-known paintings in this one day seminar with Susan Fisher on Saturday, April 19 from 9:30 – 3:30.  Diagram fine art and become familiar with the various parts that make up the whole.  Acquire the tools to enhance your own artistic expression.  Class exercises will encourage you to analyze line, shape, value, color and structure.  It is fun to diagram paintings and empowering to know how to plan your next piece.  $75 for Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Gardens, $95 for non-members.  Sign up by calling 781-283-3094 or email wcbgfriends@wellesley.edu.

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  • Wednesday, November 13, 1:00 pm and 6:30 pm – America’s Romance with the English Garden

    Author Thomas Mickey will speak on his new book America’s Romance with the English Garden in a program co-sponsored by The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Gardens, and The Garden Club of the Back Bay. Through a grant from the Smithsonian’s Division of Horticulture Services the author spent a year in Washington exploring the archives at the American History Museum, the Natural History Museum, as well as the Department of Agriculture. The focus of his work was to study the connection between marketing and the garden in nineteenth century America. He began by looking at seed and nursery catalogs from that time, and he never left them. He couldn’t get enough of the catalogs. He loved the language the writers used and the images, but especially what the catalogs taught us about gardening.

    The program will be given twice on Wednesday, November 13.  The first time will be at 1 pm at The Wellesley College Botanic Garden, and the evening session at 6:30 will be held at the Arnold Arboretum.  Garden Club of the Back Bay members will receive written notice and car pool information.  Others may visit the website of The Arnold Arboretum of Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Gardens (links above) to register.

    http://pics.davesgarden.com/pics/2013/05/17/melody/da27b9.jpg

  • Saturdays, October 5 – 26, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon – Tonal Fall Treasures and Composition

    Gourds, mums and asters will be used to explore the elements of artistic composition on four Saturdays in October, October 5 – 26, from 10 – 12 in classes co-sponsored by the Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Gardens and Weston Nurseries, 160 Pine Hill Road in Chelmsford.  Jeanne Kunze will guide you in developing and increasing design skills to relate multiple pictorial elements.  Use graphite on paper to develop designs expressing the shape, value, and rhythm of fall’s rich harvest on display.  Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Gardens price is $100, nonmembers $125.  Register by calling 781-283-3094, or email wcbgfriends@wellesley.edu.  Image from www.gertens.com.

    http://www.gertens.com/learn/Annuals-Perennials/Pictures/Pumpkins%20and%20Gourds.jpg

  • Fall Programs in the Foundations of Botanical Drawing and Painting

    Celebrate the colors of the fall, recording their vivid and vibrant palette while learning how to realistically record your subject matter in pencil, then in watercolor, with Wellesley College Botanic Gardens’ lead instructor and Education Director Sarah Roche (her painting of Hops is pictured below.)  Through demonstrations and tutorials, Sarah will introduce you to the traditional art and science of botanical drawing and painting.  Instructional focus includes observational skills, drawing, composition, design and watercolor techniques.  All abilities are welcome.  This course is the core of the WCBG Friends’ Botanical Art Program.  Choose either 8 Wednesdays, September 11 and 18, October 2, 9, 16, 23, and 30, and November 6, or 8 Thursdays, September 12 and 19, October 3, 10. 17, 24, 31, and November 7.  All classes meet 9:30 – 12:30 at the Wellesley College Botanic Gardens Visitor Center in Wellesley, Massachusetts.  Members $240, nonmembers $295.  Call 781-283-3094, or email wcbgfriends@wellesley.edu to register.

    http://www.copleysociety.org/.library/Roche_Sarah_Hops.1.jpg

  • Tuesdays, September 3 – 24, 10:00 am – 1:00 pm – Washes and Layers

    The Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Gardens is pleased to partner with Weston Nurseries of Chelmsford, Massachusetts to bring you plant-based art in an exciting new location: Weston Nurseries, 160 Pine Hill Road in Chelmsford. On four successive Tuesdays beginning September 3, from 10 – 1, you will explore botanical watercolor painting using transparent watercolor washes under the guidance of artist and experienced instructor Jeanne Kunze. this traditional approach teaches you to create plant portraits celebrating the diversity and color richness of the natural world. Jeanne will focus on plants with patterned leaves, such as Rex begonia, ivy, and coleus. Friends: $150, nonmembers: $200. You may telephone 781-283-3094 or email wcbgfriends@wellesley.edu to register.  Painting below by Patricia Savage.

    http://www.natureartists.com/art/resized/220_Sphinx_on_Rex_web.jpg

  • Challenge Grant – Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Gardens Botany Fellow

    The Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Gardens are excited to announce a challenge pledge: a generous donor will match every contribution towards a Botany Fellow through the Center for the Environment, doubling the impact of your gift.  If the Friends can raise $160,000 by May 1, they will be able to hire a Botany Fellow, with a focus on sustainable agriculture, possibly as soon as this fall.  Gifts should be made out to Wellesley College, with an indication that they are for the Center for the Environment fund.  You may also follow the directions at www.wellesley.edu/wcbgfriends and make a gift online: in step 2 click on the box to the left of “I would like to direct my gift to the following area(s)” and under “Other Designation” enter “Center for the Environment Fund.”  For more information please call Kristina Jones at 781-283-3027.

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  • Wednesday, March 27, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm – Rosemary Verey: The Life & Lessons of a Legendary Gardener

    On Wednesday, March 27, from 6:30 – 8 at the Arnold Arboretum, Barbara Paul Robinson will talk from her personal experience as a gardener with Rosemary Verey and from her research for her book, Rosemary Verey: The Life & Lessons of a Legendary Gardener, which was published by David R. Godine in August 2012. This event is co-sponsored by the Garden Conservancy, Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, and the Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Gardens. Rosemary Verey was an internationally acclaimed garden legend. Although she embraced gardening late in life, she quickly achieved international renown. She was the acknowledged apostle of the “English style,” on display at her home at Barnsley House, the “must have” adviser to the rich and famous, including Prince Charles and Elton John, and a beloved and wildly popular lecturer in America. A child of a generation born between the two World Wars, she went on to create the gardens at her home that became a mandatory stop on every garden tour in the 1980s and 1990s.

    During a sabbatical from law firm Debevoise & Plimpton where she was the first woman partner, Barbara Paul Robinson worked as a gardener for Rosemary Verey at Barnsley House. A hands-in-the-dirt gardener herself, she and her husband created their own gardens at Brush Hill in northwestern Connecticut, featured in articles, books, and on television. Barbara has published articles in the New York Times, Horticulture, Fine Gardening, and Hortus; she wrote a chapter in Rosemary Verey’s The Secret Garden, and she is a frequent speaker.  $5 for members of one of the sponsoring organizations, $15 general admission.  To register, call the Arnold Arboretum’s adult education department at 617-384-5277.

    http://hereandnow.wbur.org/files/2012/12/1221_rosemary-verey-624x476.jpg