17th Annual Meeting & Conference - 2011

Boston Preview

October 27-29, 2011 
Originally appeared in The Botanical Artist – Volume 17, Issue 1 
 
Come enjoy autumn in scenic New England! NESBA members are planning to make this the best conference yet! Our home base will be on the banks of the Charles River at the Boston Marriott Newton – with many nooks for gathering, relaxing, and watching the river flow between conference activities. The hotel is just a stone’s throw from Henry David Thoreau’s beloved Walden Pond, from where Louisa May Alcott lived when she wrote Little Women, and from the route taken by Paul Revere “through every Middlesex village and farm.” 

Boston’s intimacy and walk-ability belies its historical and horticultural riches, including North America’s oldest arboretum, the first American public park and public botanical garden (have you read Make Way for Ducklings?), and the oldest native plant society in the nation. In pre-conference and conference tours, classes, and field trips you’ll find excursions to unique destinations: the Harvard University Herbaria, one of the largest in the world; Mt. Auburn Cemetery, the first ‘garden cemetery;’ Harvard Library rare book collections; Walden Pond and Woods, Plimouth Plantation, Beacon Hill, Garden in the Woods, and Arnold Arboretum. 

Art and history abound in large and small venues – the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; the Peabody Essex Museum in nearby Salem;

the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and its brand new Art of the Americas wing; the Concord Museum which holds the lantern that Paul Revere saw hanging in the tower of the Old North Church. You can travel easily from hotel to downtown Boston on the MTA. 

The scientifically accurate, exquisitely realistic, handcrafted glass model of the Cacao plant in the Glass Flowers Gallery at the Harvard Museum of Natural History has been on permanent display since the late 19th century. ©Photo by Adam Blanchette, www.hmnh.harvard.edu

Come early to tour on your own or sign up for the pre-conference tour Taste of Boston highlighting the city on foot and by duck boat. If you prefer to hone your art skills, take Jean Emmons’ pre-conference class, Using Color Effectively in Botanical Art. 

On Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the conference will include, among others to be named in the June TBA, hands-on workshops and talks by Wendy Hollender, Karen Kluglein, Hillary Parker, John Pastoriza-Piñol, Carolyn Payzant, Kelly Radding, Lynn Railsback, Dick Rauh, and Catherine Watters. Traditional Conference activities will include Portfolio Sharing and Techniques Showcase, as well as forums on art education, art as business, wildflowers and conservation, how to run exhibits and publicize them, the jury process, and grant recipient presentations. 

One of the high points of the Conference will be a private showing of the famous Glass Flowers during our Conference reception. Buses will whirl us away on Thursday evening to the Harvard Museum of Natural History where we will have full access to the entire natural history collection during our evening reception; wine, cheese, dinosaurs, and 850 extraordinary botanical specimens in glass, plus a chance to make new ASBA friends and catch up with old ones. Friday will be capped with a reception for the Small Works Exhibition—your work!—on exhibit at the hotel from Thursday to Saturday. Get busy answering the call for entry with your own small work and be sure to submit your digital image early enough to be included in the show’s catalogue. Two awards will be presented during the Friday evening reception –Artist’s Choice Award, which your vote will decide, and the first presentation of ASBA’s Anne Marie Carney Award, for an artist in a non-juried exhibition who has not been accepted in an ASBA Juried Exhibition. 

On Saturday evening, kick back and party New England style with your ASBA friends, families, and guests during the Silent Auction and Banquet. The ASBA award announcements are always an anticipated event and this year is no exception. Stay at the Boston Marriott Newton after the conference to tour and shop more, or join us as we zip north to New Hampshire’s historic grand dame resort, Wentworth-by-the-Sea Hotel and Spa, for your choice of three-day post-conference workshops – Botanical Perspectives with Elaine Searle and Painting Heritage Fruits on Vellum with Carol Woodin. Final details about the conference will be in the June issue of TBA. Until then, preview the many events and activities of this not-to-be-missed ASBA Conference by visiting and subscribing to NESBA’s special blog at bostonasba2011.blogspot.com. 

Colonial streets, alleys, nooks and crannies invite exploration in this walkable city.

Boston 2011 

By Gillian Rice 
Originally appeared in The Botanical Artist – Volume 17, Issue 4 

The 2011 ASBA Annual Meeting and Conference in Boston is second in my journey to be an artist. Form, color, texture. Three themes permeate this journey in the workshops I take and in our visit to Harvard’ Museum’s spectacular Glass Flowers collection. 

“The best way to deal with color is for you to see it,” stresses Jean Emmons in her workshop, Using Color Effectively in Botanical Art. She explains that we see value better than color. Value defines space, so color is secondary to form.

“Nature is just a starting point,” she says, demonstrating a method of using color based on impressionist theory. 

In a pre-conference workshop, Jean Emmons demonstrates Using Color Effectively in Botannical Art

The goal is for the values to remain the same while the colors vary. The results are stunning but the process is extremely challenging. Jean encourages us to look for color with the same zeal as we look for detail. 

Her workshop juxtaposes perfectly with Corinne Lapin- Cohen’s, Exploring Reflected Light. “Art is part of your life. It’s a journey, a process; enjoy it,” she declares. Using her iPad, Cori zooms in on several paintings - some depict reflected light correctly, some wrongly, and some not at all. Like Emmons, she emphasizes the need for different colors on different parts of the subject. “Light is reds, yellows, blues – like a rainbow. Even if you don’t see it, you still paint it.” She teaches us to create an illusion on paper, an illusion that represents form. “You must study all art and not just botanical art,” to learn how to imitate reality. 

After class, I browse the Small Works Show, trying to select my favorite for the People’s Choice Award. I meet classmate Paul Merchant and all we can focus on for the moment is whether and how an artist showed reflected light! 

Working on black paper reverses the typical way we represent value. Kathie Miranda, in Colored Pencil on Black Ground, shows how to add highlights while leaving the black of the paper to represent the core shadow of the subject. 

Kathie places many glazes of color.

Portfolio Sharing.

“Why all this fuss?” she asks, “Because it shows in the final piece. The foundation is important.” She teaches us to apply the pencils gently and to work lightly in order to apply layers. This is crucial in rendering form. 

In her next workshop, Textures in Nature, Miranda accentuates observation. “Nothing is more important when looking for textures,” she begins. This is a fun class! We learn to incorporate paper tooth into our depiction of texture, how to feel what our tools do, how much pressure we need to apply for varying effects, and how to impress line in the paper. 

Carefully instructed not to allow any material to find its way into our compost heaps or gardens, we get a bag of botanical goodies to take home for practice. To my delight, it contains a milkweed pod that is a different variety from my usual desert specimen. 

Attending these workshops teaches me I must practice fundamental drawing skills. Katie Lee writes in Fundamental Graphite Techniques, “Practice basic drawing techniques regularly just as a musician practices scales.” 

I take a trip to Massachusetts Horticultural Society Elm Bank Reservation for my last workshop.

Portfolio Sharing.

Hillary Parker continues to emphasize observation. However, she is a stickler for interpreting the subject and not merely imitating it. “A key composition element is vitality,” she contends. “This is the character of the plant: life, excitement, personality.” We gauge the personalities of a pitcher plant (graceful, sly) and sea oats (fluttering, hardy). 

Hillary invites us to contemplate another composition element: our own voice as we paint. “What do you want to say?” she asks.  She explains one face of botanical art is documentation or illustration (reflecting technique and accuracy), while another face is expressive and more reflective of a fine arts tradition (emotions and feelings about the subject).

We practice composition elements using resurrection fern specimens.

Portfolio Sharing.

When studying the ferns, the “Dick-Rauh-style magnifying glass” registration gift is invaluable! 

I note the respect our artists have for one another. Eminent artists who have exhibited widely sit in workshops along with novices to learn from an instructor with a special skill. The atmosphere is one of encouragement and enthusiasm. Repeatedly, we are encouraged to take risks and to experiment. 

My goals for attending the conference were two: to learn as much as possible in the few days of the conference and to contribute to ASBA as much as I, a novice artist, could. 

Annual Meeting - members lunch with Small Works Exhibition in the background.

Serendipitous perhaps, but I chose workshops that interlinked like a chain I could grasp on my journey as an artist. The workshops I chose were eclectic but threaded together by “back to basics” and “don’t be afraid to take risks.” 

All is not workshops, however. I volunteer to sell catalogs, which go like proverbial hot cakes. In the process, I meet lots of ASBA members. I queue to buy goatskin and deerskin vellum from Pergamena and handmade “spotter” brushes from Englandbased Rosemary & Co. 

Ruth Starratt’s lecture on Wednesday provides just the right amount of history of the Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Flowers exhibit and whets our appetite.

Nothing I write can do justice to the delicacy, beauty, and detail of the Glass Flowers. 

Robin Jess and Dick Rauh thank Carol Hamilton (center) for her many years of service dedicated to the ASBA

The reception at the Harvard Museum of Natural History is a special memory. I work from herbarium specimens and illustrate plant parts using a microscope. This, for me, is difficult enough. To represent the plants as glass sculptures takes art – and science – to another level! Many thanks to NESBA and individual donors for generously hosting this wonderful experience, complete with amazing hors d’ouvres and drinks. 

The Wildflower Forum is a must-attend for me, as it focuses on tips for organizing shows. Joyce Westner and Nancy Savage detail how ASBA chapters and circles show their works and communicate with the public about botanical art. Corinnne Lapin-Cohen and Sarah Maxwell inspire with their report of successful solo exhibits. My chapter is doing an indigenous plants show this winter to celebrate Arizona’s centennial – now I know what we should be doing to promote it. 

We admire the standard of work at the Small Works Exhibition. A touch of sadness exists as we remember Anne Marie Carney when the award in her name is presented by her daughter to winner, Kathie Miranda. 

I speak to an artist who didn’t participate in Small Works because she didn’t think her art work was good enough.

Painting fruits & vegetables on vellum in Karen Kluglein’s workshop

 I stress: “This show is for all conference participants.” I’m delighted to be part of it and, just for a couple of days, to have my work displayed next to the foremost and famous in the field. What an honor, and what joy! At the next Small Works show, take a risk and participate. The show catalog is a wonderful souvenir and an excellent present for my parents. 

The craziness and urgency of the Silent Auction results in my acquiring three small and easily transportable items, one of which is Fitzwilliam Museum’s Handbook, Flower Drawings. (Thank you, Kathy Kluglein, for being a gracious bid competitor). I study my new treasure on the plane home – reviewing each painting for reflected light, color, texture, and composition. I resolve to practice, practice, practice, and to be in Chicago for the 2012 ASBA Conference. 

John Pastoriza-Piñol demonstrates his methods for painting prickly subjects during a workshop at Elmbank Horticulture Center

The NESBA Reception at the Harvard Museum of Natural History allowed members time to view the Glass Flowers

Small Works Exhibition

Silent Auction