Meeting Postponed...

...due to much needed fluffy moisture on Sunday. We'll re-schedule Suan Punjabi to help us with our Rare II images. Keep an eye on the meeting schedule for March's activities.

Applied Art

Botanical art works well in a variety of applications. For example, this beautiful e-card was created by Annie Reiser, using a Bo-Tangle image she had created, with a snapshot of lace and some beautiful lettering, computer generated and written by the artist. In it's life, the one image - a bo-tangled heart - was used as a Bo-Tangle project, a computer design project to group it with design elements in an artful way, and finally as a beautiful e-card. One image, three uses.

 

 Having more than one application for your work is a nice way to spread the concept of botanical art, enter exhibits, and engage new viewers. During a pre-holiday class on wreaths, swags and garland drawn for holiday uses, Libby Kyer created the wreath below as a demonstration for her colored pencil class.

 

 

Then, the image was segmented to create a calendar, which was created with individual calendar cards for each month, designed to fit into a miniature CD jewel case.

 

 

 





 



However, the actual final use for the image was on an 8" round textured glass cheese plate, with lovely little cheese knives to match.  One image, used to teach, to create a calendar, and to create holiday presents. Because of these single images, new techniques were learned and new audiences were engaged.

As you get ready to create drawings for our "Drawing a Day" event in March, think of ways you might use your images: sketching/drawing to feed your muse, or as the basis for a more completed artwork in other media, as part of a coloring book for 3rd graders learning about botany and plants, as notecards, as small framed prints, as glass cutting boards or cheese plates, and so many more possibilities. One drawing can improve your art and provide new insights into botanical art for many new viewers. Have fun!

Don't miss our February meeting...

Hello everyone!

Our RMSBA meeting this month will be at the Mami Doud Eisenhower Public Library at 3 Community Park Rd, Broomfield, CO 80020, at 1:00 pm on Sunday, February 24th.

We are very excited to have Susan Panjabi from the Colorado Natural Heritage Program at Colorado State University, talk to us about the wild flowers of Colorado, and the new on-line rare plant field guide that will feature botanical drawings from many people in RMSBA. Please bring what you have done on your RARE II plants and Susan will critique them for botanical accuracy.

I hope to see you there!

Dorothy DePaulo
 

New, Revised Call for Entries for The Wildlife Experience Exhibit Opportunity

Initially planned for a spring opening, things have changed on all fronts: the theme, the dates (August-November 2013), the entry form, etc.

Just go to  http://rmsbacallsforentries.blogspot.com/ to see the complete information and entry form for this wonderful opportunity.

ASBA Selects Artists for Bartram's Exhibitioin

The traveling exhibition Following in the Bartrams’ Footsteps will open at Bartram’s Garden in Philadelphia on April 26, 2013. An Opening Reception will be held May 6, 2013. Forty-three original botanical artworks have been selected.

 

Franklinia altamaha, watercolor, Karen Kluglein

 

Franklinia is the signature plant discovery of William Bartram, the son of John Bartram, in colonial tiimes. The plant is difficult to grow domestically, but would have disappeared without the Bartram's conservation efforts, as it was virtually extinct when first found by William.

 

A collaboration between the American Society of Botanical Artists and Bartram’s Garden, the exhibition features contemporary botanical artworks depicting plants discovered and introduced by two generations of the Bartram family. It will reflect John and William Bartram’s passionate observation and discovery of nature, which has influenced generations of artists and explorers throughout the world.

The forty-three original artworks have been selected from a field of nearly 200 entries submitted by ASBA members from around the world and Philadelphia Society of Botanical Illustrators members. Focusing on the native plant discoveries made by John and William in their travels through the eastern wilderness between the 1730’s and 1790’s, the exhibition allows a fresh look at their seminal body of knowledge and art. Beautiful native rarities including Franklinia, Dodecatheon, and American Lotus have been depicted. Other subjects include Foxglove, Morning Glory and Cockscomb, introductions the Bartrams made to American and worldwide gardening through their plant business. The exhibition promises to appeal to a wide audience as it ties together art, science, history, nature, and culture.

 

Artists have enthusiastically sought and captured images for the past two years, with some having gone so far as to track down heirloom seeds and cultivate them in their own gardens in order to be able to paint a particularly appealing subject. Artists have worked with Bartram’s Garden itself, or other botanical gardens to find their inspiration, and still others have explored subjects in the wilds of North America. The exhibition will open in the gallery of the restored Barn, built in 1775 by John Bartram, and the oldest barn in Philadelphia.

William’s natural history illustrations were often the first images seen of North American plants and animals and are an under-utilized cultural resource. A recent project of American artist Mark Dion reconsidered and re-enacted the travels of William Bartram throughout the southeast. In a similar vein, Following in the Bartrams’ Footsteps seeks to draw attention to the history and culture of 18th-century American naturalists including those of botanical and artistic bent, and to illuminate the role contemporary artists play in depicting these same plants for today’s audience and preserving their record for generations to come. 

Check The Botanical Artist, Journal of the ASBA, for more information on planned and possible sites for this innovative exhibition.