Art Courses at the Botanic Gardens

2012-2013 Art Classes

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Questions? Contact WCBG Friends: wcbgfriends@wellesley. edu or 781-283-3094.

ESPECIALLY FOR BEGINNERS

Drawing and Painting for the Petrified

In this relaxed, informative seminar with plenty of helpful demonstrations, work towards developing your drawing and painting skills. Sarah Roche encourages your observational skills to grow as you experiment with line drawings and the accurate representations of botanical forms. Leap into watercolor painting as Sarah guides you through a series of fun beginning botanical watercolor exercises. Get started painting! All abilities welcome.

Please bring to the first class: 9x12 sketch paper, HB (No. 2) pencils, and white plastic eraser. Sarah will discuss brushes, palettes, and papers necessary. Samples of paint provided.

NOTE UPDATED DATES AND TIMES!

3 Wednesdays: June 5, 19, 26 9:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. BAC 13 010

Members $125 / Non-Members $150

Introduction to Botanical Art

Explore the world of botanical art over five days in this course designed especially for you – the beginner. Sarah Roche guides your experience through structured exercises, projects, and demonstrations. She exposes you to the basic techniques and methods of botanical drawing and watercolor painting. If you have an interest in plants and a yearning to record what you see on paper, then this class is for you. All experience levels welcome.

5 days: Monday, July 15 – Friday, July 19 9:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. BAC 14 101A

Members $250 / Non-Members $300

Spring Palette: A Studio Focus

Using the flowers of spring as your inspiration, learn how to mix the colors in your palette to match their fresh vibrancy. This four week class with Sarah Roche will focus on color mixing and matching, so that you will produce a lively, balanced composition with an understanding of the colors that you mix to record your chosen subject.

4 Thursdays: April 25; May 2, 9, 16 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. BAC 13 104 / BAC 13 204

Members $150 / Non-Members $200

Leaves 101: A Studio Focus

Go back to basics and focus on leaves. How can you make them bend realistically? Where does the light fall? How do you paint veins? In this four session class with Sarah Roche address these challenges, going back to the elements of good leaf drawing and building on this knowledge to produce realistic watercolor renderings.

4 Tuesdays: April 23, 30; May 7, 14 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. BAC 13 103 / BAC 13 203

Members $150 / Non-Members $200

Realizing the Color: Colored Pencil Intermediate

Ramp your colored pencil skills up a notch under the guidance of award-winning artist Deborah L. Friedman as you capture on paper the flowers and foliage of late spring. Develop study pages focusing on rich and varied colors, shapes, and forms. Then translate your notes into a compelling composition using Deborah’s techniques for multiple layers of colored pencil to create the detail and color intensity necessary for botanical art infused with realism.

Prerequisite: For artists with basic drawing skill and who have taken Colored Pencil I: Fundamentals offered this academic year or with equivalent colored pencil experience.

5 Thursdays: May 23, 30; June 6, 13, 20 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. BAC 13 244

Members $225 / Non-Members $275

Drawing Trees Outside

Enjoy sitting right outside the WCBG Visitor Center to draw a broad-leaved tree and a conifer tree under the guidance of Carol Govan. Figure out the correct proportions to fit on your page, get the outside shape right, see the negative spaces of the branches, understand how to make it look three dimensional. Find your own style as you draw a large tree from a distance. Then move closer to draw the details of the bark, leaves, twigs, flowers, fruit, cones or anything else of interest. Various media can be used. Non-CBA credit.

3 Fridays: June 7, 14, 21 9:30 a.m. – 12:00 noon BAC 13 030

Members $100 / Non-Members $125

Maximize Your Palette’s Potential

Is that green a blue-green or a red-green? What about that pink?

Practice watercolor mixing for accuracy in this fun one-day studio with Sarah Roche where the emphasis is on learning to mix and match color using live plant material. Better identify the color shift of what you paint and feel confident you have mixed the correct color for your transparent and opaque layered washes. Non-CBA credit.

Tuesday, June 18 9:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m . BAC 13 082

Members $60 / Non-Members $75

Summer Flowers with Karen Kluglein

Perfect your watercolor on paper renderings under the guidance of award-winning botanical artist Karen Kluglein. While painting live seasonal flowers, emphasize color accuracy, observational skills, composition, and techniques. Address developing your personal style through discussion and study of contemporary and historical artists’ work. There will be lots of demonstrations and individual instruction. For intermediate and beyond watercolor artists.

3 days: Tuesday, July 9 – Thursday, July 11 9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. BAC 14 250

Members $395 / Non-Members $495

Capturing the Light in Botanicals

Turn on the lights and tune up your confidence. Go beyond flat botanical drawings with Susan Fisher. Graphite exercises shift your work from blah to bright and show how values enhance any illustration. Create art to grab the viewer; express a three dimensional quality, and fully express the important characteristics of the plant. Make better choices at the beginning of a piece to avoid a big “fix” at the end. Using supplied colored pencils, discover unusual approaches to seeing color and eliminate poor color choices forever. All skill levels.

3 days: Friday, July 26 – Sunday, July 28 9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. BAC 14 132

Members $350 / Non-Members $440

Painting Hydrangeas with Catherine Watters

Hydrangeas are lovely in a variety of colors, shapes and sizes, from the fresh spring blossoms to the wonderfully colored dried flowers in the fall. Catherine Watters will teach you how to carefully observe your subject focusing on form, light and texture. Then follow her method to capture in watercolors the elegant shape, bold colors and textures to make your subject come alive.

Bonus (optional) – Catherine will show you some digital tools for botanical art. Please bring a digital camera or preferably a tablet with a camera such as an iPad.

3 days: Tuesday, August 6 – Thursday, August 8 9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. BAC 14 240

Members $395 / Non-Members $495

Beyond Color Mixing

You understand how to mix color, now focus on a systematic method for manipulating color to create your vision.

How do you optimize color mixtures in your botanical watercolors? Do you use washes or glazes? Do you mix colors on the paper or on the palette? When you need to make adjustments what do you adjust first - value, hue or chroma? Increase your ability to make good color choices for different painting situations in a series of fun exercises with Susan Fisher. Learn to anticipate drying shifts and how they affect your work. Recognize various lighting aspects and see how they encourage or derail color choices. Focus on the challenging qualities of plant/vegetable specimens to practice color-mixing possibilities. A selection of watercolor exercises will guide students in the skillful use of warm or cool; light or dark; vivid or neutral colors; and related darks in botanical paintings. Although minimal drawing is needed, some watercolor experience mixing colors is required.

3 days: Tuesday, July 30 – Thursday, August 1 9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. BAC 14 114

Members $350 / Non-Members $440

Ratatouille

Create your own melody of the season’s finest. A symphony of seasonal vegetables goes into ratatouille, the classic summer stew and the inspiration for you and your art in this class with Sarah Roche planned at peak harvest time. After sketching and studying at the nearby Natick Community Organic Farm, travel back to the WCBG Visitor Center studio. While focusing on composition principles and botanical accuracy, capture the vegetables’ transient beauty in watercolor. Details and directions will be sent to registrants.

3 days: Tuesday, August 20 – Thursday, August 22 9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. BAC 14 220

Members $250 / Non-Members $295

Perspective Review

Jump start your skills or brush up for upcoming workshops. In this one-day skill-building class with Carol Ann Morley, develop your foreshortening skills while heightening your artist’s eye. Through a series of graphite exercises, work to achieve more believable drawings. Non-CBA credit

Monday, August 26 9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. BAC 14 134X

Members $75 / Non-Members $95

Drawing Flowers in Perspective

Inspired to capture all those magnificent summer flowers in your art and yet challenged by getting the perspective right? Learn how to distinguish the floral forms while solving those tricky angles of foreshortened leaves and petals. Through a series of drawing exercises Carol Ann Morley will show you how to give your graphite drawings clarity and visual depth and give you a better understanding of how to approach perspective in your drawing.

3 days: Tuesday, August 27 – Thursday, August 29 9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. BAC 14 234