Sticks and Litter Where Once Blossoms Stood – Oh, Hail!

Exhibit. Carol Till invites you to her show in the Santa Fe Arts District.

Artists on Santa Fe Gallery + Studios

June exhibition features new work by printmaker Carol Till.

Tequila Hues - Carol Till

June 5 - 29, 2019

First Friday Art Walk: June 7, 6-9 pm

Third Friday Artist’s Reception, June 21, 5-8 pm

This show includes a series of beautiful metal etchings of agaves, botanically accurate and finely detailed, printed in the intense colors of the desert using colored inks and handmade papers. Don’t miss visiting with Carol during 1st and 3rd Friday evening openings or Tuesdays 10-1:30 in June. Join her for tequila themed refreshments at the Artist’s Reception on June 21, 6-8 pm, Artists on Santa Fe Gallery, 747 Santa Fe Drive, Denver, Colorado 80204 

Spring Bloom on the Colorado Plateau. May bountifully produced the outcome of the wettest spring in years on the Colorado Plateau. Early in Cortez and Hovenweep areas, and later in Moab and Grand Junction areas. In Navajo State Park (NM), every shrub and bush on the canyon walls was in bloom. In the slick rock, cacti blooming yellow and hot pink. The tallest Utah Mallows your Editor may ever have seen. Grasses thick and Sego lilies carpeting the ground like bindweed in a pasture. This bang-up nature show is moving northward from Grand Junction toward Wyoming, so go visit Hayden or Steamboat or Dinosaur and fill up your eyes.

Silverpoint Workshop (in homage to ASBA’s 25^th Anniversary Year efforts) April 27 with Tom Mazzullo was awesome. Participants gesso-coated papers, impatiently allowed them to dry while sampling techniques on sample papers. The most amazing marks are left by the edge of a silver dollar! Copper bits – like pennies or bits of solid-strand electrical wire – for fine or broad strokes. Silver wire (and copper wire) is held in a 2mm lead holder; sharpen the tip for fine, soften for broad. Both these media age to lovely patinae, while gold wire makes a delicate pale mark that will never tarnish. We had flowers, critter skulls, and various objects to practice on. Other metals (like, well, lead) also serve as mark-makers. He told us it was a pleasure to teach technique to people who already know how to draw. Well, it was a pleasure for us, too, Tom.

The Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College in Durango has exhibits in its two permanent galleries: “Ben Nighthorse Campbell: Honors & Awards” and “Hispanidad! Treasures of the Southwest." A third gallery features the traveling exhibit from RMSBA, "Cannabis: A Visual Perspective." Exhibits are up throughout 2019. Drop in on your way to Hovenweep or Monument Valley.

Call for Entries. Once more we announce the upcoming member show “Feathers and Flora: A Natural Relationship.” The Prospectus remains available for download at OnlineJuriedShows.com. We continue to recommend the YouTube journey with John Muir Laws’ “How to Draw Birds” offering, recently revised according to the New Birds Drawing Systems. Check it out! Last day to enter August 1 (notifications by August 7).

Wall of Birds. Jeanne Benson offers this link about depicting the evolution of birds. “Huge project and very inspiring. In the video, the artist talks about tweaking the birds through their eyes and bills to make them more interesting.”

Beyond the Studio: Make a Difference! – 2019 ASBA Artist Grants 
If you have been a member of ASBA for two years, you can apply. Grants may be awarded either to individuals or to groups.

New this year: Do not submit applications online; instead, use the downloadable application form. Submit the form with supporting documents via email using the WeTransfer program, which can accommodate large files up to 2GB for free.

Three grants may be awarded to worthy projects this year:

             1. The Esther M. Plotnick Artist Grant in the amount of $3,000.

             2. The Dorothy R. Peck Artist Grant in the amount of $1,000.

             3. The BAEE Artist Grant in the amount of $3,000 for a project focused on native plants.

Applications must be submitted by August 1, 2019. Artist Grant awards will be announced at the ASBA Conference Awards Banquet, October 19, 2019, in Pittsburgh.

To learn more and apply, go here. Review the past project archive here for inspiration!

Tagawa Gardens Lavender Fields Forever event!

Rocky Mountain Society of Botanical Artists Show & Sale

Saturday, July 13, 2019; 9 am - 3 pm

As always, a beautiful selection of botanical art! RMSBA artists display our exquisitely detailed works in a variety of media, including colored pencil, watercolor, etchings, ink, and graphite. Original works, prints, greeting cards, and similar offerings will be available for purchase.

Any artist is welcome to provide a demonstration of technique and to work on new projects -- actually creating art -- while at the garden center. This sort of activity might serve to slow down the hopefuls racing toward the High Plains Iris Show, so as to siphon off a few shekels from the rhizome sales. Tagawa believe it would be wonderful to have a couple artists working on some art pieces as guests stroll by.

Contact Irma Sturgell (isturgell@gmail.com) if you are interested in bringing your work to the show.

Preminder: June member meeting Sunday, June 23. Dorothy DePaulo will conduct a workshop on rendering birds in colored pencil on Mylar at Valkarie Gallery. More details to follow.