Boston Flora

Tag: wellesley college

  • Through Sunday, December 15 – Rory McEwen: A New Perspective on Nature

    Rory McEwen: A New Perspective on Nature presents the vibrant career of the renowned Scottish artist, Rory McEwen (1932-1982). Focusing on his remarkable paintings of plants, the exhibition reveals McEwen’s lifelong enquiry into light and color in portraying his unique concept of the natural object. Over the course of his career, with his all-embracing perspective of modern art, McEwen developed a distinctive style, painting on vellum and using large empty backgrounds on which his plant portraits seem to float. In his paintings he forged his own personal interpretation of 20th century modernism, portraying individual flowers, leaves and vegetables as subject matter, “as a way of getting as close as possible to what I perceive as the truth, my truth of the time in which I live.”

    Rory McEwen: A New Perspective on Nature presents 85 watercolors on vellum and paper, representing a wide range of the artist’s work, along with many of the well-known 17th and 18th century masters who influenced him—including Robert, Redouté, Ehret, Aubriet as well as early illuminated manuscripts and folio volumes. McEwen’s work is also presented alongside the works of numerous contemporary artists who in turn continue McEwen’s artistic legacy. It includes works on loan from the Collection of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Mellon’s Oak Spring Garden Foundation Collection, the Shirley Sherwood Collection and the McEwen Family Estate Collection, as well as works from numerous private collections, most of which have never before been seen by the American public. McEwen’s work is found in private and public collections across the globe, including the British Museum; Victoria and Albert Museum; Tate; National Gallery of Modern Art, Scotland; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; Hunt Institute, Pittsburgh; and Museum of Modern Art, New York.

    The exhibition, Rory McEwen: A New Perspective on Nature, is presented by the Davis Museum at Wellesley College in association with Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (London) and Oak Spring Garden Foundation (Virginia); tour management by Landau Traveling Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA.

    The Gerard B. Lambert Foundation has provided major support for the exhibition. Generous support for the Davis presentation is provided by Wellesley College Friends of Art at the Davis, the Alice G. Spink Art Fund, the Constance Rhind Robey ’81 Fund for Museum Exhibitions, and the Kathryn Wasserman Davis ’28 Fund for World Cultures. Below: Rory McEwen, Tulip ‘Julia Farnese’ rose feather, 1976, Watercolour on vellum, ©Estate of Rory McEwen

  • Friday, June 23, 6:30 pm – A Sustainable Conservatory in New England? Lessons from Wellesley College’s Global Flora Project

    The New England Botanical Society will hold its June meeting at Wellesley College on Friday, June 23 at 6:30. The speaker will be Dr. Kristina Jones, Director of the Wellesley College Botanic Garden. Her topic is A Sustainable Conservatory in New England? Lessons from Wellesley College’s Global Flora Project. The talk will be followed by a tour of the Global Flora Conservatory. For more information and to register, visit https://www.rhodora.org/meetings/upcomingmeetings.html

  • Saturday, April 22, 8:00 am – 9:30 am – Outdoor Garden Walk: Birds of the Wellesley Botanic Gardens

    Celebrate Earth Day with both plants and birds! Rachel Moon is a wildlife biologist who specializes in shorebird habitat restoration. Working at the Wellesley College Botanic Gardens in Fall, 2022, Rachel collaborated with the Botanic Gardens team to create bird-friendly habitats and inspired students and staff with knowledge about the birds of campus. Join Rachel for an enthusiastic, guided walk of her favorite outdoor garden areas, including the Edible Ecosystem, to watch for and learn about local birds. Meet at the WCBG Visitor Center. Free, but pre-registration is required. Email wcbgfriends@wellesley.edu.

  • Wednesday, December 15, 12:00 noon – 1:00 pm – Sharing the Adventure: Design Communications for Ecological Landscapes, Online

    When a designed landscape succeeds, it’s a sign that there’s been strong communication across the project team. It means that the designers understand the clients’ goals and resources, and that the clients understand how their new landscape will look, how it will change, and how it will be managed over time.

    In this Ecological Landscape Alliance online December 15 presentation, Toby Wolf will explore strategies for making the design process a shared adventure. Toby Wolf is a landscape architect whose designs connect people with the natural world. His work includes planning and design for Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Wellesley College, the Native Plant Trust, Cornell Botanic Gardens, Boston’s Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy, Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery, and for homeowners throughout the Boston area. Mr. Wolf is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Cornell University and has taught at Cornell, RISD, SUNY ESF, and the Landscape Institute. He serves on the Horticulture Committee of the Friends of the Public Garden and on the board of the Ecological Landscape Alliance. Free for ELA members, $10 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.ecolandscaping.org/event/sharing-the-adventure-design-communications-for-ecological-landscapes/

  • Wednesday, December 15, 12:00 noon – 1:00 pm – Sharing the Adventure: Communications for Ecological Landscapes, Online

    When a designed landscape succeeds, it’s a sign that there’s been strong communication across the project team. It means that the designers understand the clients’ goals and resources, and that the clients understand how their new landscape will look, how it will change, and how it will be managed over time.

    In this December 15 Ecological Landscape Alliance online presentation at noon, Toby Wolf will explore strategies for making the design process a shared adventure. Toby Wolf is a landscape architect whose designs connect people with the natural world. His work includes planning and design for Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Wellesley College, the Native Plant Trust, Cornell Botanic Gardens, Boston’s Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy, Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery, and for homeowners throughout the Boston area. Mr. Wolf is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Cornell University and has taught at Cornell, RISD, SUNY ESF, and the Landscape Institute. He serves on the Horticulture Committee of the Friends of the Public Garden and on the board of the Ecological Landscape Alliance. Free for ELA members, $10 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.ecolandscaping.org/event/sharing-the-adventure-design-communications-for-ecological-landscapes/

  • Thursday, April 23 – Saturday, April 25, 9:30 am – 3:30 pm – Color Mixing for Artists – POSTPONED

    Susan Fisher teaches you how to mix the colors you want, not the ones you end up with trial and error. In a three day Wellesley Botanic Garden class, to be held in the Putnam classroom at Elm Bank, 900 Washington Street in Wellesley, learn an easy system for combining colors consistently to achieve the broadest possible spectrum for any “wet” medium, including watercolor, gouache, oils, acrylics. etc. Ideal for artists of all levels. $395 for Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Gardens, $450 for nonmembers, and prices include color mixing sheets. Register at 781-283-3094, or email wcbgfriends@wellesley.edu

  • Monday, January 28 – Wednesday, January 30, 9:30 am – 3:30 am – Dried Leaves, Branches, and Seedpods

    Make sure to collect your favorite specimens before snowfall to be the subjects of your winter composition of dried leaves, branches, and/or seedpods. Carrie Megan will conduct a three session class in the Putnam Classroom at The Gardens at Elm Bank, 900 Washington Street, Wellesley, and will show you how to use a range of different density pencil leads from 8H – 2B to create compelling compositions or studies and to render finely detailed drawings in graphite. This Wellesley College Botanic Garden class is for intermediate/advanced skill level. Classes will be held January 28 – 30 with a snow date of January 31. $275 for members of sponsoring organizations, $325 for nonmembers. Register at http://wellesley.edu/wcbgfriends.

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  • Thursdays, October 18 – November 8, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm – Drawing and Painting for the Petrified

    Wellesley College Friends of Botanic Gardens’ Education Director, Sarah Roche, encourages your observation skills to grow as you experiment with line drawings and accurate representations of botanical forms. Leap into watercolor painting with a series of fun exercises. The four session class will take place at The Gardens at Elm Bank, 900 Washington Street in Wellesley, beginning October 18 and continuing through November 8, from 9:30 – 12:30. $123 for Mass Hort members, $150 for nonmembers. Register at www.masshort.org, or call 617-933-4973.

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  • Wednesday, May 30, 7:00 pm – Renewal of the Blue Garden in Newport, Rhode Island

    Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., with the Olmsted Brothers firm, designed the Blue Garden from 1912 – 1918 for the Newport, Rhode Island estate of Arthur Curtiss James and his wife, Harriet. The garden room featured a unique planting palette of blues and purples “with some whites”, and shades of green foliage, and was surrounded by an evergreen enclosure to screen the garden from view. The garden was opened to friends in August 1913 with a celebration called “The Blue Masque”, and was heralded with numerous magazine articles and photographs depicting its architectural and horticultural riches. By 2012 the garden was almost forgotten, subsumed under a thick covering of weeds and invasive trees. This Arnold Arboretum lecture on Wednesday, May 30 at 7 pm in the Hunnewell Building will present the story of the people who originally created the Blue Garden and how the restoration team used original plans, drawings, and photographs from the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site Archives to reinterpret the design and rebuild the garden in all its glory, while meeting contemporary sustainable standards. Free, but registration required; Reception to follow.

    Offered with Friends of Fairsted. Featured speakers are Sarah Vance, MLA, Director, The Blue Garden, and Arleyn A. Levee, Landscape Historian, Hon. ASLA

    Arleyn A. Levee is a landscape historian and preservation consultant, specializing in the work of the Olmsted firm. For many years, she has worked with various non-profit preservation groups and landscape architecture firms doing the research and evaluations needed for rehabilitation and protection of Olmsted-designed historic landscapes, both public and private. She is the author of The Blue Garden: Recapturing an Iconic Newport Landscape, published in 2016, and many articles about Olmsted firm commissions and the various firm designers responsible for this work. She received a Bachelor of Arts from Wellesley College, Master of Arts in Teaching from Harvard University, and a Certificate from the Radcliffe Seminars Program in Landscape Design.

    Before assuming the position as Director of the Blue Garden, Sarah Vance was a senior associate with Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architecture, part of the team that developed the rehabilitation plan for the garden and supervised its construction. Her role included analyzing the original drawings and developing planting plans for the garden and surrounding planted enclosure. As Director, she now works with a dedicated group of gardeners to ensure the design intent of the garden’s plan and to maintain it as an accessible and sustainable landscape. She takes special pleasure in sharing the story of this once-forgotten landscape and experiencing the appreciation, surprise and delight of its many visitors. Sarah received a Master in Landscape Architecture with Distinction from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

    Register at http://my.arboretum.harvard.edu or call 617-384-5277.

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  • Friday, March 23 – Monday, March 26, 9:30 am – 3:30 pm – Vellum Painting Inspired by Hoefnagel

    In Wellesley College Botanic Garden’s four-day course with Denise Walser-Kolar, you will take inspiration from Joris Hoefnagel’s Mira calligraphiae monumenta and create paintings of small natural collections – plants, seashells, insects, etc.  Use the first day to work on your composition, then spend the next three days painting. Learn how to create the trompe l’oeil look of stems going through the paper, how to create shadows, and how to mix colors that glow on vellum. Create a finished piece based on the works of Hoefnagel. Friday, March 23 – Monday, March 26, 9:30 – 3:30 (snow date March 27.  Friends of Wellesley Botanic Garden – $495, nonmembers $595. For more information call 781-283-3094, or email wcbgfriends@wellesley.edu.

    Image result for Hoefnagel