I was happy to see this article in the Delaware paper today – congrats to our members who are part of this exhibit at the Delaware Art Museum! The exhibit is called “Beyond Words: The Symbolic Language of Plants.” We are currently working on arranging a group visit to see the show in March – details coming soon.

http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20120209/LIFE0402/202090302/Petals-portals-soul?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Home|p

All the best,
Kelly Sverduk, President
Botanical Art Society of the National Capital Region
kelly.sverduk@gmail.com

Please join your friends in the Lord Fairfax Orchid Society at their third annual Show and Sale at the Museum of the Shenandoah, Winchester, VA, Friday, March 30 and Saturday March 31 from 10 to 4.

The show will feature a show table of members’ blooming plants, sale tables, a potting station, displays of photographs, and a continuously running power point presentation on growing phaleanopsis orchids.

In addition, a class will be offered Friday afternoon for budding orchid growers on the care and cultivation of the plants. There is a fee for the class, and those attending will receive an orchid plant at the conclusion. Registration is required.

The Michael Graves designed museum is located at 901 Amherst Street just west of downtown Winchester on route 50. The museum and the six-acre Glen Burnie Gardens will be open for touring as well. Visiting the orchid show, the museum and gardens and a light meal at the tea room will make for a pleasant day’s outing.

The museum contains four main galleries, the Shenandoah Valley Gallery, which tell the story of the valley’s history including decorative arts displays. The Julian Wood Glass Jr. Gallery features the private collection of the museum’s benefactor. The R. Lee Taylor Miniatures Gallery showcases Mr. Lee’s collection of the work of over 75 miniature artisans, compiled over 20 years.

The special exhibit at the museum will be “Surviving War,” part of the exhibition, “An American Turning Point: The Civil War in Virginia,” organized by the Virginia Historical Society.

While the orchid show is free, there is a fee to tour the museum and the gardens. Winchester is easily accessible from interstates 81, 66, 70 and 270. Please consider spending a day with us in historic Winchester and the beautiful Shenandoah Valley.

For questions and further information, please contact Barbara Lewis @Barbara jack.lewis@gmail.com.

Looking for something fun to break up the long, grey month of February? May I suggest a 3-day class in Scratchboard over President’s Day weekend? This will be taught by Trudy Nicholson, who is an enthusiastic teacher and amazing artist. She is truly a master in this medium, and this is a unique opportunity to learn her tricks of the trade. If you are unfamiliar with scratchboard, take a look at Trudy’s work at http://www.science-art.com/member/?id=23 – it’s beautiful.

This class is offered through Brookside Garden’s School of Botanical Art and Illustration, but the only prerequisite is ink drawing experience. The location is McCrillis Gardens in Bethesda.

To sign up or learn more, visit www.parkpass.org , or call the Brookside Registrar at 301-962-1451. Full class description is below.

Kelly Sverduk, President
Botanical Art Society of the National Capital Region
12774 Shawnee Road
Greenwood, DE 19950
(302) 245-0623
kelly.sverduk@gmail.com

Master Class: Developing Scratchboard
Description:
Using ink or graphite pencil on the unique surface of scratchboard opens a realm of composition potentials. We will introduce strong tonal contrasts, starting with structural composition and positive/negative space. Combining white and black lines and dots creates a wide range of interesting, varied textures to build value contrasts. These intense contrasts bring drama and excitement, as well as accurate detail and a 3-dimenional aspect to the composition. As on no other surface, ink on scratchboard is correctible. Graphite pencil rendering can achieve subtle, delicate effects duplicating the appearance of nature. Trudy Nicholson has been using scratchboard for many years and has illustrated numerous natural science books including being featured in Ruth Lozner’s ‘Scratchboard for Illustration’. She will share her techniques by step-by-step instruction. Prerequisite: BGSBAI ‘Pen & Ink I’ or ink drawing experience. 02-18-2012 – 02-20-2012 , 10:00AM – 4:00PM

Sought-after Pandora Sellars signed, numbered and embossed lithographs recovered from storage.

January 16th 2012 – -

www.traditionalbotanicals.com , is honored to announce the offering of signed and numbered archival quality lithographs of four sought-after works by Pandora Sellars recently recovered from where they had been in storage for the past 22 years. Each print has also been embossed by the British Fine Arts Traders‟Guild.

Included in the collection is Laelia tenebrosa, the very first original acquired by Shirley Sherwood for her now extensive collection of botanical art that hangs in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery at Kew Gardens.
These limited edition lithographs are being offered by agreement with Pandora Sellars who is regarded by many as today‟s finest living botanical artist. Further details about Pandora‟s extraordinary work and background can be found in an article on the gallery‟s blog.

Traditional Botanicals Gallery is a unique online botanical art gallery offering the work of accomplished, internationally-recognized contemporary botanical artists who adhere to the traditional roots of botanical art. Not only have they all exhibited extensively, they have also been featured in various publications and botanical art books, they have taught, and their original works hang in collections around the world.

In the interest of the maintenance of high standards for the genre, and as reassurance for botanical art purists, patrons and collectors, the gallery has articulated a guiding definition of „botanical art‟. This definition by which it operates can be found in the “About Us” section of the web site as well as in an article on its blog. A link to the blog is provided on the site.
In addition to the work of Pandora Sellars, the work of other acclaimed botanical artists is to be added to the gallery in the course of the next few months. Appropriate announcements will be made with each addition.

Contact:
Gallery URL: www.traditionalbotanicals.com

Michael Best
Ph: 403 616 7086
Fx: 403 252 5492
Email: michael.best@screenflex.ca

Here are a few items I wanted to pass along to you:

1. “Press release of interest to botanicals artists, patrons and collectors of botanical art: Attached is a press release about four Pandora Sellars botanical art prints that we believe will be of interest to you. If you cannot open the press release, here is the gallery URL where you can see the prints: www.traditionalbotanicals.com” (This site is well-worth a look for some inspiration!)

2. We received the following in an email from a craftsman – you may be interested in viewing his woodwork. “Would your members be interested in Western Juniper (Cypress Family) for a botanical project or two? The attached photo shows some samples of the different sizes I hunt for in the woods. Those in the photo have had the bark removed with a pressure washer, using regular faucet water. A wholesale price list can be found here on my website. http://juniperguy.com/ .”

3. We’ve also received a request from a home-schooling mom who is looking for someone to teach botanical art/nature journaling to a group of students (approx. 7 years old.) They hope to meet at the USBG for classes. If anyone is interested, please email me and I’ll put you in touch with her.

Thanks!
Kelly Sverduk, President
Botanical Art Society of the National Capital Region

If you missed this article in December, you’ll want to take a moment and read what member John Sonnier has been up to in the garden of the British ambassador -

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/home-garden/going-green-diplomatically-at-the-british-ambassadors-residence/2011/12/06/gIQAdmgotO_story.html

Congrats to John!

Best,
Kelly Sverduk, President
Botanical Art Society of the National Capital Region

“Southern Exposure Seed Exchange offers more than 700 varieties of vegetable, flower, herb, grain and cover crop seeds. We emphasize varieties that perform well in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast, although gardeners and farmers from all over the country grow our seeds. We do extensive germination and purity testing to ensure that we always provide the highest quality possible.”

http://www.southernexposure.com/

© Artists of Studio 155, 2011

BEYOND WORDS: THE SYMBOLIC LANGUAGE OF PLANTS

Delaware Art Museum
2301 Kentmere Parkway
Wilmington, DE 19806
1.866.232.3714 (toll free)

February 4 to April 8, 2012

Artist Reception:
Sunday, March 18, 2012
1:30 – 4:00 pm

Studio 155 Artists

Debbie Bankert
Roberta Bernstein
Neena Birch
Elizabeth Ward Carter
Wendy Cortesi
Jan Denton
Jill Hodgson
Betsy Kelly
Vicki Malone
Eileen Malone-Brown
Donald B. Myer
Kappy Prosch
Michael Rawson
Eva-Maria Ruhl
Ellen Tuttle
Juliana Weihe
S. M. Wilson

❖

Throughout history and across cultures, artists have used plants as symbols. Some of the earliest associations can be found in ancient cultures, such as the Romans who linked Venus, the Goddess of love, with the rose or the Egyptian use of the lily to symbolize Isis, the Goddess of fertility as well as the association of beauty with the lotus in Asian and Indian cultures.

Plant symbolism reached a high point in Medieval Christian art, when religious craftsmen and artists used plants to explain the meaning of church parables and doctrine to a largely illiterate population. Inspired by Medieval artistic quality, the Victorian Pre-Raphaelite artists revived the use of this ancient plant-language by attentively studying Nature and realistically depicting plants to provide additional layers of meaning in their paintings.

This Sunday is our first membership meeting of 2012; we hope you’re planning to attend! The ASBA Sampler program will give us a chance to experience highlights from the recent American Society of Botanical Artists conference. We’ll participate in mini-workshops focusing on: color values on vellum, sketching on location, and composition tips. This program will also feature a presentation on some of the wonderful locations visited on field trips in the Boston area. Some materials will be provided to you, but please bring the following items:

sketchbook and pencil
a few watercolors, palette and brush
any artwork, completed or in progress, that you’d like to share on our Recent Works table
food or beverage for social time
a few dollars if you would like to participate in the raffle

The meeting will be from 12:30-4:30 at the US Botanical Garden,

If you have not yet paid dues for 2012, please plan on doing so at this meeting.

Come out and enjoy an afternoon of camaraderie with your fellow botanical artists!

Thank you,
Kelly Sverduk, President
Botanical Art Society of the National Capital Region

REMINDER: January 22, 2012

U.S. Botanic Gardens, Washington, DC — (USBG), 12:30-4:00
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