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!

Labor Day approaches – Remember to use your breaks and vacation days that cost so much struggle

Friday, September 1, is turn-in day for your art for the Cannabis exhibit. Check your acceptance notice for any final procedures and deliver your stuff to Shiere Melin. The Opening Reception is next week in Boulder.

Open Studio on September 13, 10 am - 2 pm, to be hosted by Judy Vanderbosch at her Redbud Studio, 6585 E Colorado Dr, near Cook Park in southeast Denver. Join us (suggest intent via this link) for whatever might be your Open Studio pleasure, as Judy takes us through some scanning demos and opportunities.

Catalog cover

On the Road Again. Vail was lovely on Saturday for the last event for our  RARE II exhibit. Some clouds kept sun intensity down at the Betty Ford Alpine Gardens Education Center hosting our exhibit and the reception. The permanent displays about alpine regions and ecology welcomed and embraced our artworks like long-lost cousins. The venue is at the west end of Gerald Ford Park. 

We opened RARE II in Durango in May 2015 at the Center of Southwest Studies amid the lovely cultural artifacts of the Colorado Plateau, basketry and pottery. We close this exhibit in the world's highest botanic garden, among the Alpine plants in their enchanting setting.

Panels from Ft Lewis College fit the doors

We hope this final venue gets plenty of visitors. If your travels take you west on I-70 during the next couple months, remember that admission is free, and you need to take a break from driving and get a little exercise.

Gallery reception

Patti Hearn's Artist posters & Martha Narey's Map posters survived

Nanette Kuich chats with Jan Boyd Haring

Visitors

Dorothy DePaulo signs in 

Vanessa Martin & Ann Fleming at permanent display

Alas for South Texas. My relations and connections all are ok, but lots of folks are in distress. As long as that storm system stays in place, it moves moisture off the ocean surface and delivers rain to the land, especially in the areas east to north of the eye. Streams can’t drain, roads flood and livestock drown. Sewage and petrochemicals in the water, serious problems ahead with structures. The highway system is designed to slow floodwaters by ponding up – we can see that’s workin’. Keep your fingers crossed for all residents. I expect the Houston Arboretum & Nature Center is pretty well silted up, as are the other gardens and arboreta in the area. The Menil Art Collection is on low ground, too, I think.

Weeping Angel in Houston Cemetery

Texas Ecosystems

Wooden Elevation Model - Flooded! 

Today's Texas Navy

ASBA 2017 – Registration proceeds… new instructions… new information…

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!

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.

RARE II

Signed, Sealed, Delivered, and on the Walls!

RARE II opened May 16 in Durango at Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College. The heavens wept with joy. The student staff provided refreshments, sweet and savory. Dignitaries spoke and visitors attended. Artists and groupies admired their works.

Jo Childers starts the tour

Carefully chosen enlargements of paintings introduced the exhibit. The gallery space is open and beautiful, and we were thrilled to be accompanied by lovely objects from the Basketry and Beadwork collections. What a wonderful hanging!

Helen Smithwick and visitors

Gallery context

Posters also supported the exhibit of 40 botanical paintings: seven story boards tell of artists’ experiences and journeys (thanks to Patti Hearn) and two composite maps encourage visitors to consider the challenges posed by environment and human pressure (thanks to Martha Narey).

An after-party hosted by RARE Queen Sharon Garrett brought out the very best in everyone, including a rare appearance by the ReJeCTs [Retired Jeffco Classroom Teachers], who wrote a song in our honor, which Dorothy DePaulo proclaimed “the nicest thing anyone’s ever done for us.”

You can sing along, to the tune of “The Streets of Laredo” (some of you may recall the Smothers Brothers’ rendition…)

     As I walked out on the streets of Durango

     I saw some young artists with works of their own:

     Botanical pieces, meticulous detail.

     They worked long, hard hours, left Partners alone.

     They dug up rare plants, and they copied from photos,    

     Right under Vanessa(the President)’s nose.

     Half wanted to quit and the others said “F**k it!

     We’re not getting paid, and this earthy s**t blows!”

     Here’s to the artists: They suffered, they conquered.

     Hooray for the art show! Now, let’s have a toast!

 The ReJeCTs gave us a grand send-up (lyrics & vocals by Jo Childers & Andrea Waner, supporting vocals by Pam McClelland & Lynn Horseman); Vanessa & Jan nearly croaked laughing, while Dorothy & Sharon were moved to tears. I expect at least one of them will have posted an iVideo to YouTube by now… maybe we’ll post one here.)

Jan Haring, Dorothy DePaulo, Vanessa Martin

Grouping of four on Ginger Root

Our Host Director & Dorothy Depaulo

 
 

 More pictures to follow -- send me yours!