Boston Flora

Tag: Wellesley College Botanic Garden

  • Tuesdays and Thursdays, July 19, 21, 26 and 28, 9:30 am – 3:30 pm – From Flowers to Fruits: Botanical Textures in Gouache

    Join award-winning designer/illustrator and botanical artist Kelly Leahy Radding to explore the properties of this historic, versatile medium while painting a variety of botanical subjects and textures.  Pronounced “gwash,” gouache comes from the Italian word guazzo for mud, and is often referred to as body-color.  It can be painted from light to dark with consecutive washes or glazes, or it can be scumbled – adding white to the pigments to paint light over dark.  Include this water-based medium in your artist toolbox and find new ways to enhance your work.  For intermediate to advanced artists.  Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture members, $300, non-members $375.  Classes will be held Tuesdays and Thursdays, July 19, 21, 26 and 28  at the Wellesley College Botanic Garden, and you may register by calling 781-283-3094, or by logging on to www.wellesley.edu/WCFH.

  • Wednesdays, June 29, July 13, August 10, and September 14, and Tuesdays, July 12 and August 9, 9:30 am – 2:30 pm – New England Flora 2011

    The Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture presents a class with Carol Govan, who will help you follow plants through the growing season.  Expand your creative botanical art and illustration skills through the close study of natural plant communities and seasonal changes.  Between meetings, study independently and create accurate illustrations of a local habitat.  Focus on gathering data in the field to understand how to identify plants and render them.  You will draw faster when you understand what is important for identification and the difference between a field sketch and a plant portrait.  Experiment with different media.  The six day course will take place June 29, July 12 and 13, August 9 and 10, and September 14, from 9:30 – 2:30 at the Wellesley College Botanic Garden in Wellesley.  WCFH members $360, non-members $450.  To register, call 781-283-3094, or log on to www.wellesley.edu/WCFH.

  • Friday, June 10 – Sunday, June 12, 9:30 am – 3:30 pm – More than Just Pretty Needles: Conifers

    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.

  • Thursdays, June 2, 9 and 16, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm – History of Botanical Art Seminar

    Past Garden Club of the Back Bay speaker Carol Govan introduces you to illustrations from a variety of eras and artists who tried to preserve the ephemeral qualities of plants for different reasons, in this three session class at the Wellesley College Botanic Garden on Thursdays, June 2, 9 and 16, from 9:30 – 12:30.  Learn why plant illustrations changed from fanciful copied images to accurate representations from direct observation.  Learn the difference between an herbal, a floral, a florilegia, a botanical monograph, and many other collections of images based on who would use the finished book.  See the many techniques involved in creating original images as well as reproducing them for a larger audience.  A private viewing in Margaret Clapp Library Special Collections highlights the College’s extraordinary world-class collection of rare manuscripts.  Bring a hand lens for looking at samples.  Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture members $100, non-members $125.  To register, log on to www.wellesley.edu/WCFH, or call 781-283-3094, ext. 4.   Florilegium illustration shown below: And thou, divine LINNAEUS! … from The temple of Flora: or, Garden of nature, being picturesque botanical plates of the New illustration of the sexual system of Linnaeus, by Robert John Thornton, London : Printed for the publisher [i.e., the author], 1799

  • Mondays and Wednesdays, June 13, 15, 20, and 22, 9:30 am – 2:30 pm – Roses: An Exercise in Form and Dimension

    Take inspiration for your rose paintings from Redoute and Rory McEwen.  Sarah Roche guides your interpretation of the form and dimension of this most elegant of flowers through a series of basic exercises in drawing and painting.  Learn to decode the complex shape and structure of flowers.  Apply your skills in a watercolor study, portraying the way the petals overlap and curl, the sharp edges of the thorns, and the smooth textures of leaves.  Techniques covered in this class will reinforce your painting skills so that you can add a painting of the rose and other similar complex flower forms to your portfolio.  The four day class will take place Mondays and Wednesdays, June 13, 15, 20 and 22 from 9:30 am – 2:30 pm at the Wellesley College Botanic Garden in Wellesley, and costs $225 for Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture members, and $275 for non-members.  Sign up at www.wellesley.edu/WCFH, or call 781-283-3094, ext. 4.  The image below, by Maria Cecilia Freeman, is part of an  art exhibition entitled “Rose Studies” on view through April 30, 2011 at the Helen Crocker Russell Library of Horticulture at the San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum.

  • Wednesdays, May 4 – May 25, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm – Plant Painting for the Petrified

    In a relaxed atmosphere at the Wellesley College Botanic Garden, Sarah Roche will guide you through the elementary stages of illustrating plants.  Your observational skills grow as you experiment with your first line drawings.  Explore composition and color choices as you enjoy the process of creating botanical art.  Please bring sketch paper, HB, B, 2B pencils and a white plastic eraser to the first class.  WCFH members $125, Non-Members $150.  To register for the four Wednesday classes (May 4 – 25, 9L30 – 12:30), log on to www.wellesley.edu/WCFH, or call 781-283-3094, ext. 4.  Beautiful line drawing below by Linda Reeves.

  • Wednesdays, May 4 – June 15, 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Art as a Way of Seeing and Knowing

    The Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture offer a seven week class entitled Art as a Way of Seeing and Knowing, A Journey of Discovery, beginning Wednesday, May 4, from 1 – 4, and continuing through June 15, at the Wellesley College Botanic Garden and Greenhouses in Wellesley, Massachusetts.  This class offers a unique opportunity for serious artists at all levels.  Be inspired and renewed by the awesome diversity of natural forms available year round in the greenhouses and arboretum at Wellesley College.  Or, use your drawings, memory and imagination to develop ideas in the studio classroom.  Draw or paint using materials that suit your expressive intentions.  In a warm and supportive atmosphere, award winning artist/educator Susan Swinand offers critiques and suggests projects to spark your creativity.  WCFH members, $200, non-members $250.  To register, log on to www.wellesley.edu/WCFH, or call 781-283-3094. Image of work below by Susan Swinand courtesy of Pascarelli Gallery.

  • Saturdays, April 30 – May 21, 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Ink Brush Painting Workshop

    Capture the essence of different plants and flowers using expressive gesture strokes based on Asian ink brush painting traditions.  Working with black ink and watercolor, Nan Rumpf (paintings below by Nan Rumpf courtesy of www.needham.patch.com)  helps you interpret plant forms with brush and ink.  Also explore rice paper washes using Assam tea and watercolor.  Join the Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture to learn new skills or brush up on your old skills, on four successive Saturdays, April 30 – May 21, from 1 – 4.  This class can help watercolor artists expand their repertoire of brushstrokes as well as provide a useful transition step between drawing and painting.  WCFH members $125, Non-Members $160.   To register, call 781-283-3094, ext. 4, or log on to www.wellesley.edu/WCFH.

  • Fridays, April 1, 8, 15 and 29, 9:30 am – 3:30 pm – Scientific Botanical Illustration: Orchids

    Black and white drawings have an aesthetic beauty all their own, and were long used for illustrations before color printing.  Under the guidance of Jeanne Kunze, use traditional dip and technical pens to create weighted, broken, hatch, and crosshatch line work as well as stipple to illustrate live orchids.  As many scientific illustrations are done from pressed field-collected material, Jeanne will also show you how to use dried specimens for illustration, including methods of making these samples look fresh and alive.  Dissecting microscopes and other magnification devices will aid you in accomplishing an informative, precise, and aesthetically pleasing illustration.  There are some prerequisites for this Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture course, to take place at Wellesley on four Fridays, April 1 – 29, so email horticulture@wellesley.edu, or call 781-283-3094, ext. 4, for complete details.  WCFH member price is $250, non-members $300.

  • Monday, March 21, 10:30 am – 12:00 noon – Water: When is Enough Not Enough?

    Massachusetts is blessed with relatively abundant precipitation (an average of 45 inches each year) leading many residents to the erroneous belief that there’s plenty of “surplus” water available for human consumption at any time and for any purpose. Russ Cohen of the Mass. Department of Ecological Restoration clues us in to why our water resources can at times be insufficient to support our aquatic ecosystem, how human activities – both historically and today – adversely affected our river and stream systems, and what potential solutions are available to mitigate these impacts.  This event on Monday, March 21, the March meeting of The Garden Club of the Back Bay, is co-sponsored by the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, the Boston Junior League Garden Club, the New England Wild Flower Society, and the Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture.  Garden Club members will receive a written notice of this meeting, along with car pool information to the Wellesley College Botanic Garden, where the event will take place.  The meeting, however, is also open to the public for a small fee ($10 if a member of the Arnold Arboretum, NEWFS or WCFH, $15 if a non-member). Registration may be accomplished at http://www.wellesley.edu/WCFH.