Boston Flora

Tag: Massachusetts College of Art and Design

  • Sunday, May 25, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Natural History Exploration

    Join artist and journalist Will Close for this series of natural history explorations at the Millers River Environmental Center. In this Athol Bird & Nature Club workshop on May 25 you will get a chance to deepen your awareness and connection to the natural world through wildlife tracking and the use of nature journaling and field sketching. You will be guided through various foundational techniques designed to strengthen your observational skills. This workshop will be primarily held in the field. All experience levels are welcome.

    Will Close is an artist, designer, educator, and wildlife tracker who specializes in the intersection of nature, art, design, and teaching. He holds a degree in Fine Art Painting from Massachusetts College of Art and Design and studied wildlife track and sign under Dan Gardoqui and Daniel Hansche. Currently, Will resides in Concord, Massachusetts where he maintains an artistic studio practice and is an outdoor education instructor with the Carroll School located in Lincoln, Massachusetts. His passion for nature illustration, tracking and sharing it with others, has taken him from the spruce forests of Maine to the Ecuadorian Amazon. Most recently, he was the inaugural artist in residence with North Country Land Trust in North Central Massachusetts. For more information visit www.atholbirdclub.org

  • Saturday, September 18, 10:00 am – 3:00 pm – Plein Air Painting: Premier Coup/First Attempt Technique

    This workshop sponsored by the Trustees at Weir River Farm in Hingham focuses on painting the landscape using the Premier Coup Technique. We’ll put a mark down, leave it and finish the painting in one session. This technique aims to simplify the process of seeing, color mixing, and composing, and includes a pared down materials list. Through a combination of demos and in-class assignments we’ll learn approaches to create direct, energetic paintings.

    All levels welcome, demos will be in acrylic. Materials list will be sent to registrants. Since 2009, instructor Lisa Daria Kennedy has committed to an on-going daily painting project. As a young adult cancer survivor, she discovered living is not just surviving. Each painting seeks to give a voice to the fiber of the everyday.

    Kennedy received a BA from Roger Williams University, a BFA in Illustration and an MFA in 2D from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Currently she is the Design Editor for the literary publication Mount Hope and an Assistant Professor at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, MA. She lives in an old fishing camp at World’s End in Hingham, MA with Olive the dog. View the daily painting project and everything else at lisadariakennedy.com

    Workshops to be held outside with access to inside studio with doors open. Masks required inside the building

    $152 for Trustees members, $180 for nonmembers. Register HERE.

  • Sunday, July 8, 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Floral Still Life Painting

    Working from direct observation, take time to study and paint a beautiful floral arrangement. Whether you’re an experienced artist, or just interested in experimenting with acrylic paint, this Tower Hill Botanic Garden class on Sunday, July 8 from 1 – 4 will be a fun, guided afternoon of creative exploration. All materials included in the fee ($45 for Tower Hill members, $55 for nonmembers).

    Instructor Julianne Martin is an artist whose work consists of paintings that celebrate nature and experience. Made from acrylic paint, graphite and glitter, Julianne’s work presents a convergence of delicate whitewashed rainbows, stained emblems of animal spirits, impressions of the night world, and enlivened botanical patterns. Julianne lives in Boston, where she offers art lessons, art parties and workshops. She also teaches art to children and adults at Brookline Arts Center. Julianne received her BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. She has an MFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design at the Fine Arts Work Center. To learn more about Julianne, visit her website, http://www.julianne-martin.com. To register, visit www.towerhillbg.org.

    Image result for floral still life public domain

  • Through May 13 – The Birds & The Bees: In Celebration of the Pollinators

    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

  • Monday, January 30 – Saturday, March 10 – Verdant

    The exhibition entitled Verdant: An Exhibition of Contemporary Art Utilizing Living Plants, explores the interactions between people and the natural environment; delving into the complexity of humanity’s relationships with the landscape through the work of contemporary artists who use living plants in their art.

    Rather than simply drawing inspiration from the biosphere, artists Binh Danh, Paula Hayes, Tim Knowles, and Workingman Collective utilize plant matter as their artistic media, incorporate natural growth processes to create striking images, employ plants with pollutant-eliminating abilities in interactive sculptures to create healthy social spaces, and even embrace plants as active collaborators in their work. The free exhibition will run from January 30 – March 10 at the Sandra and David Bakalar Gallery at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, 621 Huntington Avenue in Boston. Times are Monday through Saturday 12 – 6, Wednesday 12 – 8, closed Sundays. For more information call 617-879-7333.