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.

Tomorrow a Super Blood Blue Moon!

So go out east and see what Grandmother at perigee looks like coming up over the horizon.

Reminder: Membership dues for 2018 must be submitted now. Please check the box for RMSBA when you go the ASBA renewal site.

Open Studio at Carol Till’s was instructive and fun. Your Editor learned all about mistakes and ways to do it wrong(ly). Sorry you weren’t there with these ladies:

Next Open Studio will convene at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science for some display sketching. Contact Vanessa Martin for details and to participate. Bring a stool, a drawing board… and, of course, your own personally preferred media and substrates.

ArtCozy assemblers needed. Volunteer to help Judy Vanderbosch finish the RMSBA Art Cozies and you will be rewarded [we are not one bit above bribery around here] with a FREE Art Cozie!

Thursday February 1st from 9:30 am to 3 pm. Lunch and snacks provided. You do not need to have any sewing experience to volunteer!

We need about 6 people to do:

 - Stamping, cutting out and ironing RMSBA labels.

 - Cutting, plastic pockets (need to know how to use a rotary cutter)

 - Cutting fleece for bags with a rotary cutter.

 - Sewing on labels and plastic pocket.

I have 2 machines that should be enough for this session but if you have one you would like to bring that is good. Also rotary cutters would be good to bring. I have the needed supplies for the rest. Any questions just call.

Please RSVP to Judy at redbudart@gmail.com  303-375-7718

‘Lost in the Woods’ is open for entries at OnlineJuriedShows.  Deadline for entry is May 15, 2018.  The show will open at the Valkarie Gallery in Lakewood.

 

Installation is on Monday, June 18, with an Opening Reception on Saturday, June 23. First Friday event on July 7! Artists will be implored to attend, to mingle and discuss…

RMSBA Executive Board meeting on January 14 was attended by these officers and members:

Eileen Richardson – President (new!)

Vanessa Martin – Interim Treasurer (new!)

Irma Sturgill - Exhibits co-chair

Shiere Melin - Exhibits co-chair

Kristi Czajkowski – Secretary

Martha Narey – Communications editor

Dorothy DePaulo – Logistics chair

Sharon Garret – RARE exhibit chair

Susan Fisher – Director emerita

Carol Till - member

Judy Vanderbosch – member

The Board extends great thanks to Ronda Ballard for her service as Treasurer, 2015-2017.

Inasmuch as a few unclaimed originals are still in exhibit chairs hands following the RARE shows (yes, even from RARE I), and a number of prints and other materials, the Boards announces the establishment of a left-work maximum period of 30 days following the closing of an RMSBA show, juried or nonjuried. Participants must retrieve, or make alternative arrangements with the Exhibit Chair(s), all originals and unsold accompanying materials by 30 days after the closing. Any unclaimed artworks will be offered for sale by RMSBA, and the proceeds shall accrue to the RMSBA treasury. This proposed By-law change will avoid burdening any member serving as exhibit chair.

2018 Member Meeting Schedule

March 18. Location TBD (a week earlier than usual: the 25th is Palm Sunday)

June 24. General meeting at the Bel Mar Library in Lakewood (attendees can see “Lost in the Woods” at the Valkyrie Gallery after the meeting!)

September 30. Location TBD

December 9. Holiday Party

Scotland’s Horticultural Society invites the Cream of the Crop to participate in BISCOT 2018, so if you are among them, check this out here.

Any botanical specimen.

Eligible to show at BISCOT 2018 are:

Anyone awarded a Gold or Silver-gilt award from an RHS Botanical Art Show

Graduates of the RBGE Botanical Illustration Course who hold a Diploma with Distinction

Artists who have passed the BISCOT assessment in 2017 or previously

… by Valentine’s Day, folks. Deadline is February 14, 2018.

The Kirkland Museum of Fine Art and Decoration will open its new building at 12^th and Bannock in Denver with an exhibit of Colorado prints on March 10.

March will be the Month of Printmaking. Events include a studio tour on Saturday, March 24 from 10 to 4, and Carol Till’s studio will be among those open. Carol will also host an open house on Sunday, March 25, from 10 to 4. Mo’Info on Mo’Print later.

There’s Still Hope for a Rocktober, Baseball Fans

Check out this link: Postcards from Denver. Only a few seats left!

POSTCARDS FROM….Denver a four-day Primer & Plein Air watercolor workshop

Thurs, Sept 28 – Sun, Oct 1, 2017 • 9:30am – 4:00pm The Art Gym, 1460 Leyden St., Denver Instructors: Marjorie Leggitt and Leon Loughridge

Happy Independence Day (Feliz Día de la Independencia) yesterday, Mexico

Member meeting in Broomfield at the Mamie Doud Eisenhower Library, 1 - 3 pm, September 24, which is Sunday. Location: 3 Community Park Rd, Broomfield, Colorado; we will be in the Eisenhower room.  Check your email for more details.

Exhibit snapshot from “Cannabis: A Visual Perspective”:

… and there’s more!

Be sure to visit full-sized, framed, lovely show at the CU Museum of Natural History!

Equinox is coming, 12 hours of light

Greetings from beautiful Capitol Reef National Park. The orchards at Fruita have bloomed and it's petalfall by the Fremont River. Populus fremontii is in bloom, too, with amazing green and red male flowers and tightly bundled green female buds; the trees are dioecious and it's really evident right now. 

Members Meeting: Our first meeting this year is on March 26, 2017, at the Lakewood Library from 1-3 pm, 10200 W. 20th, Lakewood, CO. The Executive committee wants to focus on the many ways you can get involved in either local RMSBA activities or national exhibits hosted by ASBA and other affiliated groups. Please note that the Lakewood Library does not have a cafe so bring your own refreshments.

Tentative agenda:

1. Update on Open studio, Cannabis exhibit, Gathering of the Guilds and Tagawa Gardens.

2. RARE II exhibit traveling to Ft. Collins Museum of Discovery in May 2017 before traveling to Betty Ford Gardens in August.

3. ASBA's Out of the Woods exhibit

4. Upcoming Worldwide Exhibit

5. National conference insight

6. Open discussion

7. Members: bring any of your current art works that you would like to share or ask for advice.   

RARE II venues just keep comin’, after two years on the road. We’re thrilled that the RARE II exhibit will travel to the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery for May – July 2017, after closing at the CU Museum of Natural History, and before moving to the Betty Ford Gardens in Vail in August.

Gathering of the Guilds in 45 Days. April 30, 2017, Boettcher Mansion, Lookout Mountain.

Happy Halloween ends this month, Dia de los Muertos starts the next!

The Sun - October 2014 --No foolin'!

Meeting Tomorrow! Members meet October 30 from 1 – 3 pm at the Boulder Public Library, 1001 Arapahoe Av, Boulder (free parking on Sundays, Library Café on site). Agenda items:

-Update on current affairs

Selling RARE II catalogs

-Winterlude  - Sharon Eaton and Patti Hearn

-Tagawa Nursery – Patti Hearn

-Cannabis exhibit – Vanessa Martin

-RARE II – Sharon Garrett

-Can Do update 

-Cherokee Ranch and Castle – Vanessa Martin

-ASBA conference highlights by those who showed up

-Shout out congratulations to Susan Fisher! Her "Cabbage" was purchased for the Hunt Institute of Botanical Documentation permanent collection.

-Rocky Mountain Land Library - Eileen Richardson 

-Accept Winterlude: Botanical Promises artworks and sales materials 

-Members currrent artwork sharing and critique (bring your latest!)

-Sale of gallery frames (16x20 Walnut w/ Plexiglas: $20)

Winterlude artists dropoff. Please bring your artwork, framed in the required Dick Blick frame, ready to hang with wire, etc., and marked on the back with all the particulars about the piece, along with the release form from Gallery Bleu, to our meeting Sunday, October 30 at the Main Boulder Public Library, beginning at 1 pm. If you cannot make the meeting, do arrange to have someone bring and submit your artwork. Patti and Sharon will collect all and transport them to the gallery in Fort Collins, where they and Mary McCauley, the curator, will install the show, beginning at 11:30 a.m. on Friday, November 4. Following their morning’s labors, their reward will come during the Opening Reception from 5 to 7 p.m. Please be there! 

Sales Opportunities. Bring any prints, etc. that you would like to sell to the Oct. 30 meeting. We are getting into the holiday seasons, and patrons will be looking for presents, etc. so be prepared and have your prints, cards, and other outputs available. Patti and Sharon will deliver these as well. Both the opening and the holiday (Dec 2) receptions will coincide with Fort Collins Art Walks.

RMSBA Executive Committee meets Monday, November 7, 11 am - 2 pm, at Hooked on Colfax. If you have business for the Board to consider, please let one of us know.

A “Fresh Air” podcast heard by Susan Fisher may be of interest to members. The interview is with the author of a history of marijuana published on October 25. Check your local library…

Halloween (Oct 31) – All Hallows Eve – is the day before All Saints’ Day (Nov 1) and the next day (Nov 2) is All Souls’ Day, when Catholics pray for the souls of the departed. Dia de los muertos in Mexico remembers the departed, especially one’s ancestors, for whom offerings of food and drink may be presented. Dress up nice and have a good time!

What was that cloud yesterday?

Reminder – Members meeting Saturday at Koelbel Library from 11-1 pm, April 23, 2016.  Besides membership updates, we have guest speaker Susan Panjabi from the Colorado Natural Heritage Program to discuss additional illustration opportunities. Also, we have a guest speaker from Cherokee Ranch and Castle for discussion of upcoming events and a chance to ask questions.

Reminder -- Gathering of the Guilds. The event is Sunday, April 24, 10-4 pm at the Boettcher Mansion on Lookout Mountain in Golden. Attendance is free; just tell them you are a participating member. This event is a lot of fun, and worth the drive on a lovely Sunday.

RARE II opens in Raton, New Mexico.

Pack your bags, artists! The Reception is April 30, 3 – 5 pm, 108 South Second Street, Raton, NM. The exhibit will show until May 28, 2016. You folks from south of Monument Pass do have a much shorter drive so go visit the neighbors. Among the local attractions is Climax Canyon Park, where there is an exposure of the Iridium layer marking the K-T boundary and demarcating the extinction of the dinosaurs.

Folsom, NM, homeplace of the Folsom Point (and its culture) and Sugarite State Park are off to the northeast, while Capulin National Volcanic Monument is a few miles east. 

Openings and Shows and Gatherings

We have a number of topics and upcoming events for you to watch for and participate in. Here is a brief summary of things to come.

Winterlude: Botanical Promises – New 2016 exhibit for RMSBA members only- Call for Entry will be coming soon!

Gathering of the Guilds. RMSBA has been invited again to this year’s annual Gathering of the Guilds. The event is Sunday, April 24th, 10-4 pm at the Boettcher Mansion on Lookout Mountain in Golden. Attendance is free; just tell them you are a participating member. For those of who might be interested in selling your artwork or merchandise, please contact Vanessa Martin at martin.vanessa655@gmail.com.

April membership meeting reminder. Please note that the meeting is on Saturday, April 23rd from 11-1 pm at Koelbel Library in Centennial  The Agenda will include general  updates and an open discussion on the opportunities and events planned this year at the Cherokee Ranch and Castle. A guest speaker from Cherokee Ranch is planned. Members who have already gone and participated in Arts Afield will share their experience.

Arts Afield offering from the Prez. Vanessa Martin shares this lovely sketch from the aboriflora at the Cherokee Ranch, where RMSBA is the Artist-in-Residence. Sign up at the website, go sketch, send me a picture at narey46@hotmail.com, and I’ll post yours!

Distilled at Spark Gallery. RMSBA (and CPSA) member Susan Rubin explores the botanicals involved in intoxicants in a Mo’Print Denver-themed show combining Polaroid transfer monoprint techniques with her exquisite colored pencil renderings. It’s a beautiful exhibit and a lot of fun. Get yourself to 9^th and Santa Fe in Denver. Cheers!

Pressing Matters at ASLD reception. Mo’ about Mo’ Prints: Three RMSBA members are represented in this prestigious exhibit at the Art Students League of Denver, 2^nd and Sherman in Denver. They are our own Carol Till, Susan Fisher, and Vanessa Martin! Come see how they’re hung.

Carol herself did not send me a selfie...

Call for candidates to sit on the Executive Committee. If you are interested in becoming a board member, we seek candidates to fill 2017-2018 positions. You are invited to come to the board meeting on April 11th from 11-2 pm at Hooked on Colfax, and see the inner workings of our executive committee.  

Now the chocolate’s gone and the flowers have faded

February membership meeting. Our first meeting of 2016 is February 28, 1 – 3 pm, at Koelbel Library, 5955 S. Holly St., Centennial, CO. For 2017, RMSBA is hosting a national juried art exhibit to examine the great variation in the Cannabis plant genus, and the initial presentations about this plant genus will accompany other business at the meeting.

We expect to discuss access to plant materials and plan sketching excursions. Bring your ideas: help us all decide how botanical illustration can best provide to the public a seeing and learning experience based on facts, offering a comprehensive view of the controversial plant family (Cannabiceae).

Some members of the RMSBA Board participated in initial sketching sessions during January. We found the plants – even as greenhouse infants – to display several traits allowing varieties to be distinguished. Wide color and shape variations can be expected among varieties and strains.

Exhibit Plans. Our next exhibit – “Cannabis: A Visual Perspective” -- will portray cannabis botanicals used in medicinal, recreational, or hemp industry applications. RMSBA takes no position on any state or federal policy, but does wish to establish a useful visual record and perspective on the plant. We encourage artists to seek out unique strains and depict whatever aspect of them they find most engaging, educational and inspiring. This exhibit is open to all botanical artists nationally and will be juried.

The Prospectus and the Open Call for Entry for “Cannabis: A Visual Perspective” is posted online at: https://www.onlinejuriedshows.com/Default.aspx?OJSID=7561. Check out the details.

RARE II Opened in Pueblo. Artists’ Reception was Friday, February 5, 4:30 – 7 pm, at the Sangre de Cristo Art Center, 210 N Santa Fe, Pueblo. We are in a terrific venue very close to I25 exit 98B, excellent parking. Our exhibit is interestingly hung, and guards the way to all the galleries, the elevator, the stair, and the restrooms. Traffic was somewhat impaired by the many careful readers of our descriptive labels. The Exhibit Notebook of Artists’ information got the attention of a number of visitors, even among those not in line for the refreshments. Herewith are some images of our opening.

May 24 Meeting

Meeting in Sedalia

We meet Sunday, May 24th at 1:00 at Cherokee Castle and Ranch, 6113 Daniels Park Rd, Sedalia, CO 80135

Please notify Vanessa Martin (martin.vanessa655@gmail.com) if you’re coming!

We ask $5 as a donation for the castle tour.

You may also need an umbrella...

Guests are welcome!

It's May!

RARE II Opening Reception

Anyone interested in attending the Opening Reception on May 16^th from 2-4 pm who wishes to carpool please contact Vanessa Martin at (720) 870-1488 or email martin.vanessa655@gmail.com. We plan to leave on Friday May 15 and return Sunday May 17. Details for hotel accommodations are unknown at this time and depend upon who all is interested in going.  

May Meeting

May 24th, 1-3 pm at the Cherokee Ranch and Castle, 6113 N Daniels Park Rd., Sedalia, Co, 303-688-5555.  Web site: cherokeeranch.org 

As we will be touring the castle and grounds, we ask you to bring $5 each to help cover some of the expense of the tour. Please note that this meeting is Sunday, May 24th instead of our typical last Sunday of the month.

RARE II Catalog

RARE II – Imperiled Plants of Colorado: the catalog of 40 beautiful illustrations of imperiled species by RMSBA members, will be available for purchase starting at the Opening Reception in Durango May 16. The catalogs also will be available for purchase at our monthly meetings beginning with the May 24 meeting at the Cherokee Ranch and Castle. Cost is $20.00.  If you are interested in purchasing one or more catalogs but will not be at an upcoming meeting, please contact rmsbartists@gmail.com to make other arrangements.

RMSBA Exhibit Traveling Notebook

We need artists’ biographies and statements for an exhibition traveling notebook, which will accompany shows, and whose content can be changed as participation varies. Right now, we especially need RARE II artists to put together these items, and bring their drafts to the meeting at Hudson Gardens in June, when we all will get some formal instruction on how to make ourselves shine.

in lieu April Meeting

A RARE II Frame-a-thon (April 24) and Gathering of the Guilds (April 26) replaced our April meeting. The framing of 40 artworks and several composite posters for RARE II went rather smoothly, with not too many surprises, and we all were glad to have it done! Thanks to Sharon Eaton for the work site and the lunch and thanks again to the framer wannabes who labored so carefully under Ronda Ballard’s watchful eye.

The Gathering of the Guilds seemed well-attended in the rain- and snowstorm. RMSBA had a nice parlour space set up and participating members sold stuff and entertained the public. Your Blogster was thrilled to see many of our members there – not a few are members of other Guilds – as visitors and as exhibitors. Beautiful fabric and weavings, marquetry and jewelry, knives and embroidery, prints and cards and engravings, shower salts and ceramics and silks, artists and crafters -- even a distiller. Be advised -- a dye plants garden grows at DBG-Chatfield.