Wildflowers everywhere, just when you need them!

 

Upper Sraight Creek Trail

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Miners Candle

Member Show Call for Entries. The Rocky Mountain Wild! exhibit  for RMSBA members only  this fall remains open for entries at Online Juried Shows. Enjoy a stroll through those alpine meadows to catch the mid- to late-summer blossoms and fruit you’ve been waiting patiently for to refine your drawings of your chosen Colorado wildflowers for this show. The deadline is September 10, so now is the time to face the page and finish your pieces!

Member Meeting at Denver Botanic Gardens at York Street, 1-4 p.m. Sunday, September 19, 2021. We will meet in Freyer-Newman Center, Classroom 1, which is to the left as you enter FNC. Enter through the main doors to the Freyer-Newman Center near the Copper Door Coffee Shop at 11^th Ave & York Street; do not use the public access gates at York & ~10^th. Anyone wanting to visit the Gardens before or after the meeting should book a ticket as usual.

If you have work accepted into the Rocky Mountain Wild! exhibit, drop it off at this meeting; the show will be installed at Garden of the Gods the next day.

Freyer - Newman Center at DBG

ASBA Traveling Exhibit coming next year. ASBA announces that Denver Botanic Gardens will host Abundant Future: Cultivating Diversity in Garden, Farm, & Field, the Fourth New York Botanical Garden Triennial. It will be on view in Denver from October 8, 2022 – January 15, 2023. The exhibition will be installed in the Freyer – Newman Center, new home of Denver Botanic Garden’s School of Botanical Art and Illustration. The MotherShip are excited to bring this exhibition to Denver. 

We all have plenty of time to plan. For more information and updates as they become available, see ASBA's website here and Denver Botanic Gardens' website here.

ASBA Annual Conference ONLINE October 13-17, 2021. Registration for ASBA's second virtual conference is now open! For information, visit the ASBA website. To register online, click here. Registration closes at 11 pm Eastern Daylight Time on October 6th. Inexpensive. No transportation or lodging costs… Sign up.

RMSBA’s ZOOM member meeting on July 6 – hosted by Susan Fisher – drew as large an attendance as we ever have had at in-person meetings, and members from afar could join in. We may have to do that again. We had a lovely presentation by Mary Dillon of Kilkenny, Ireland, who was up at 1 am local time to talk with us at 6 pm here. Thanks, Mary. Thanks, Susan.

Caribou Ranch Bouquet

Oh, the Ides! … and the Yellow Flags.

US Public Health Service Quarantine Flag

OMG!

In Paris, all the cafes are CLOSED!

No wine!

In Ireland, all the pubs are CLOSED!

No beer!

So how shall we manage the pandemic?

Johns Hopkins Coronavirus map. This in from the Department of Geography and the Environment at DU:

Y’all might be interested in this: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus GIS Map

Steven R. Hick

GIS Director & Professor of the Practice - GIS

Department of Geography & the Environment

University of Denver

Artists’ Reception for Lost in the Woods at Betty Ford Alpine Gardens Education Center in Vail, Colorado, was Monday, March 2. Exhibit closes April 18. 

Cannabis & Medicinal Herbs. La Cour French Bistro and Jazz Bar (AKA Denver’s Art Bar at 1643 South Broadway) will display works from our Cannabis show during April 2020. We solicit original artworks created in traditional botanical media that fit into the theme by portraying cannabis or any other medicinal herb.

Eligibility: RMSBA Members

Entering Images: Please send a .jpg (low res. ok) to Sharon Garrett or Dorothy DePaulo, who will determine if your image fits with the theme and into the space available.

Sales: Sales are encouraged at this cash-and-carry exhibit. Artist receive 76% of the sale price; 19% goes to La Cour and 5% to a selected charity [501(c)3 RMSBA]. You also can offer small prints and cards for sale.

Calendar:

 1. Exhibit dates: April 2 to April 30, 2020.

 2. Instructions for delivery will follow upon acceptance.

 3. Install: April 2.

 4. Opening reception April 3. Members wishing to attend the reception must make reservations with La Cour online, or call (303) 777-5000.

NOTE: La Cour is currently Closed due to the Pandemic.

“From Platte to Peak”. Illustrate type plants collected by Dr. Edwin James during the first actual scientific expedition to the western High Plains, led by Major Stephen H. Long, during the summer of 1820. Many plants are familiar and widely dispersed, and you may already have some finished pieces that fit the size limits. The Call for Entry is at Online Juried Shows, open now and closing August 15, 2020. Martha Narey is the contact for the James Plant List and supporting materials. We all now have several weeks to concentrate on making plant portraits, what with many activities having been curtailed.

Netleaf Hackberry

Mountain Mahogany

Delicious Raspberry

Rocky Mountain Maple

Do you recognize Saint Patrick’s Day? What do you recognize the next day?

Artists’ Reception for Lost in the Woods at Betty Ford Alpine Gardens Education Center in Vail, Colorado, is set for Monday, March 2, 2020, 12 – 2 pm. Please join us if you can.

Cannabis & Medicinal Herbs. We happily announce an upcoming no-fee show-and-sale exhibit! This serendipitous opportunity goes up in the venue on April 2. Maybe you have an existing piece that fits with the theme, or you have a little time to create something new.

La Cour French Bistro and Jazz Bar (AKA Denver’s Art Bar at 1643 South Broadway) will display the pictures from our Cannabis show that recently closed in Durango during April 2020. Some pieces are no longer with the exhibit, and the Bistro is quite large, so we seek other artworks focusing on medicinal plants to fill out the show.

We ask for artworks created in traditional botanical media and conforming to standard botanical art criteria. They must fit into the theme by portraying cannabis or any other medicinal herb. You may create a new piece befitting the theme, or submit an existing work. No size or framing restrictions are imposed. You can offer small prints and cards for sale.

Eligibility: Members of the Rocky Mountain Society of Botanical Artists.

Fees: There is no fee for this exhibit.

Entering Your Images: Please send a .jpg (low res. ok) to Sharon Garrett or Dorothy DePaulo so that they might determine if your image fits with the theme and into the space available.

Sales: Sales are encouraged; it will be a cash and carry exhibit. Artist receive 76% of the sale price; 19% goes to La Cour and 5% to a selected charity [501(c)3 RMSBA].

Calendar:

 1. Exhibit dates: April 2 to April 30, 2020.

 2. Instructions for delivery will follow upon acceptance.

 3. Install: April 2.

 4. Opening reception April 3. Members wishing to attend the reception must make reservations with La Cour online, or call (303) 777-5000.

Presentation of Artwork: Frames are expected to be good quality and befitting a gallery setting. Selected entries must be:

• Framed and ready to hang.

• NO sawtooth or projecting eye screw hangers. Use D-rings and picture wire.

Label the back of your artwork with your name, address, phone number, email, title of artwork, sales status and price. Titles must include the Latin name of the plant portrayed. 

Accepted entries not conforming to these constraints may be refused at the time of hanging.

All artwork will be transported in RMSBA Fleece Art Sacks. Other packing material will not be stored by the RMSBA.

New Show at Spark! Gallery. Phillip Potter is a local artist whose work has botanical elements and themes and who is among the aspiring artists participating in our From Platte to Peak opportunity. Try him out while you’re down the Santa Fe Art District.

Upcoming Lecture from the Tesoro Cultural Center: This in from Heidi Snyder:

"The Great American Desert: Major Stephen Long's Colorado Expedition of 1820"

Saturday, April 25, 4 pm Buck Recreation Center, 2004 W. Powers Ave, Littleton

Sunday, April 26, 2 pm, Denver Public Library, 10 W. 14th Av. Pkwy, 5th floor, Denver

(limit 60, no registration)

Sunday, April 26, 6 pm, The Fort, 19192 CO-8, Morrison

Using images of original paintings, sketches, and maps, John Steinle will discuss the Stephen Long expedition of 1820 on its route through Colorado and other parts of the west. He will illustrate the many "firsts" that this expedition accomplished, and why the West was labelled the "Great American Desert" in the expedition's aftermath.

Call the Tesoro Cultural Center at 303-347-5999.

Limber Pine Herbarium Sheet

RMSBA Exhibit. “From Platte to Peak” calls on us to illustrate plants collected by Dr. Edwin James during the first actual scientific expedition to the western High Plains, led by Major Stephen H. Long, during the summer of 1820. Many plants are familiar and widely dispersed, and you may have some depictions of them in your own existing portfolio that fit the size limits. The Call for Entry is at Online Juried Shows, open now and closing August 15, 2020. Martha Narey is the contact for the James Plant List and supporting materials.

Alpine Clover

Alpine Thistle

We want your artwork!

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.

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.

Now that the Taxes are Over...

Open Press Workshop

We’ve put together a workshop over 3 days -- 2 Saturdays and a Thursday -- at Open Press to learn drypoint printmaking techniques from Mark Lunning himself! The class is limited to 10 people, so please check your calendars and sign up early. 

Workshop cost is $100, a bargain since it includes basic materials. Here are dates and times:

          May 2, 2015 from 1-3:00pm

          May 9, 2015 from 1-5:00pm

          May 14, 2015 from 1-5:00pm

Location:  40 W. Bayaud Ave., Denver, Co.  (303) 778-1116

Web: http://www.openpressltd.com/

Mark Lunning, master printer and owner of Open Press, regularly teaches at the Art Students League. We are fortunate he is teaching this workshop exclusively for RMSBA. Do an Internet search and see some possibilities for this technique. Start thinking of what images you will want to make, as we expect to complete two plates.

Contact Vanessa Martin at martin.vanessa655@gmail.com to reserve space. Direct all questions to Vanessa.

Deadline Looms!

The deadline to email your intention to enter the Wicked Plants Exhibit is May 1, 2015. Email Sharon Eaton racereaton@aol.com  to let her know you intend to enter Wicked Plants. 
Do plan to join us, even if you’re not quite sure which vile phytotype you want to portray. Click here for the Wicked Plants entry instructions.

Pergamena at Meiningers

Thanks to their encounter at ASBA last fall here in Denver, Pergamena has chosen Meiningers Denver store at 5^th & Broadway as their retail outlet in the West. Right now on sale at 20% off…

Susan Fisher does a critique

             

                Read the Rare II jurors statement here